ON  MULEBAL 


THROUGH 


CENTRAL  AMERICA 


'  ^^0)  ' 


James  M.  Taylor 


i> 


V 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


\ 


] 


Bro.      Taylor      Traveling      on      Mule 
Through    Central   America. 


ON  MULEBACK 


THROUGH 


CENTRAL  AMERICA 


BY 


JAMES  M.  TAYLOR,  Missionary  Evangelist. 

Editor  of  The  Missionary  Reporter  and  author  of  thirty-one 
Books  and  Booklets  on  various  subjects. 


Cloth,  50c.,  Paper,  25c. 


JAMES  M.  TAYLOR. 
Publisher. 

807  Deery  Street, 

KNOXVILLE,  TENN. 


^ 


Of 


To 

Makgaret  Netta  Taylor, 
My  Wife, 
And  true  companion,  who  carried  the  burden  of 
the  home,  the  care  of  our  child,  the  management 
of  the  office  and  homebase  of  the  work,  standing 
nobly  by  the  'iielm"  while  we  traveled  through 
Central  America  on  muleback,  this  book  is  lovingly 
dedicated.  James  Milbuen  Taylor. 


1523380 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE. 

T. — ^My  Fourth  Missionary  Evangelistic  Cam- 
paign     7 

II. — The  Great  Idol  of  Central  America 10 

III. — Guatemala    17 

IV.— Romanism  in  Guatemala 23 

V. — Taking  the  Gospel  to  Lake  Yzabal 26 

VI. — Three  Days  in  the  Saddle  30 

VII.— One  Million  Slaves 34 

VIII.— A  Visit  to  San  Cristobal  37 

IX. — A  Heathen  Eoman  Feaet 42 

X. — The  Censer  of  a  Heathen  Roman  Feast  46 

XI. — Today  or  Never 50 

XII. — Baja  Vera  Paz  . .  a 52 

XIII.— An  Indian  Feast 56 

XIV.— Through  Baja  Vera  Paz 58 

XV. — One  Gospel   63 

XVI. — Strangers  in  a  Strange  Land,  Among 
a  Strange  People,  with  a  Strange 

Tongue GG 

XVIL— My  Last  Night  .   . 70 

XVIII.— The  Friends  Caamp    73 

XIX. — A  Noon  Meeting 77 

XX. — Ordered  Away  in  Twenty-four  Hours .  .  80 

XXL— Under  Arrest 84 


XXII.— In  the  Hands  of  Robbers  87 

XXIII. — Honduras  from  the  Interior 93 

XXIV.— Eaten  Alive 96 

XXV.— Hotels  by  the  Way 99 

XXVI.— Our  Beds 102 

XXVII.— Our  Mules 104 

XXVIII.— What  We  Ate 110 

XXIX. — ^Building  Houses    113 

XXX.— Dying  Without  Friend,  Home  or  God  117 
XXXI. — The  American's  Influence  in  Central 

America 119 

XXXII.^Panama  Today 133 

XXXIII. — Panama  Tomorrow 125 

XXXIV.— Incidents 128 

XXXV.— Simeon 136 

XXXVI.— Seriaeo  and  Antonio 138 

XXXVIL— "Don  Juan." 141 

XXXVIIL— Good-bye 145 


CHAPTER  I. 

MY  FOURTIT  MISSIONARY  EVANGELISTIC  CAMPAIGN. 

(For  the  convenience  of  those  who  have  not  pre- 
viously known  of  our  interdenominational 
missionary  work.) 

Since  189G  the  author  and  Mrs.  Taylor  have  felc 
the  hand  of  the  Lord  upon  them  for  missionary 
evangelistic  work,  on  mission  fields,  in  connection 
with  various  mission  stations  of  different  churches. 
Three  of  these  missionary  evangelistic  campaigns 
have  carried  us  through  the  West  India  Islands  and 
parts  of  South  America,  where  thousands  of  people 
have  sought  the  'Lord.  During  these  campaigns  it 
has  been  the  privilege  of  the  author  to  come  face  to 
face  with  needs  on  the  fields  as  only  the  missionary 
ever  faces  them. 

In  connection  with  these  trips,  we  have  at  va- 
rious times  gone  into  unevangelized  parts  as  yet 
untouched  by  missionaries  of  any  organization.  On 
returning  to  the  homeland  we  have  given  mission- 
ary addresses,  conducted  missionary  convention-, 
written  for  various  papers,  and  scattered  thousands 
of  tracts  and  booklets,  putting  before  the  church  of 
Jesus  Christ,  to  the  best  of  our  ability,  needs  as 
we  saw  them.  This  has  brought  to  us  missionary 
money  from  various  sources  with  instructions  that 
it  be  used  in  meeting  these  needs. 

Without  any  organization  of  our  own,  and  feel- 

7 


8  ON  MULEABCK 

ing  that  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  would  not  have 
us  start  a  new  organization  or  do  an  independent 
work,  we  decided  in  placing  workers  (whether 
American  or  native)  whose  support  we  undertook, 
to  put  them  in  connection  with  some  organization 
already  at  work  on  the  field.  In  doing  this  we  have 
selected  organizations  that  have  sufficient  backing 
in  the  homeland  to  guarantee  the  future  of  the  work 
that  may  be  accomplished. 

The  reader  would  no  doubt  be  surprised  to  know 
the  calls  we  have  received,  and  continue  to  receivj 
from  every  part  of  the  world,  begging  for  mission- 
ary evangelistic  work.  Many  missionaries  write  us 
that  this  is  their  greatest  need. 

Through  correspondence  with  workers  in  Central 
America  we  became  interested  in  the  work  of  that 
land.  On  November  13,  1913,  we  sailed  from  New 
Orleans,  La.,  for  our  Fourth  Missionary  Evangelit- 
tic  Campaign  through  Central  America,  with  a 
band  of  workers.  Our  party  consisted  of  two  breth- 
ren who  were  to  remain  on  the  field  to  do  mission- 
ary work,  Eev.  Sidney  W.  Edwards  as  interpreter', 
and  song  evangelist  James  V.  Reid,  who  filled  the 
place  of  singer  in  our  services,  and  secretary  to  the 
writer. 

Our  first  stop  was  in  Guatemala,  the  most  north- 
em  republic  of  Central  America.  From  there  we 
passed  on  sowing  by  all  waters,  trying  to  go  through 
this  needy  country  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature. 


THEOUOH   CENTRAL  AMEEICA.        9 

This,  our  Fourth  Missionary  Evangelistic  Cam- 
paign, carried  us  from  Guatemala  to  the  Republic 
of  Panama  and  into  the  Canal  Zone.  It  was  dur- 
during  this  Campaign,  while  on  the  field,  spending 
much  time  in  Indian  huts,  traveling  on  muleback 
and  afoot,  that  the  Lord  gave  us  the  various  chap- 
tei's  of  this  book. 


10         ON  MULEBACK 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  GEEAT  IDOL  OF  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

In  all  Central  America  there  is  no  one  thing 
standing  in  the  way  of  the  gospel  so  much,  and  we 
doubt  if  all  other  things  hinder  the  gospel  as  much 
as  the  Esquipulas  idol. 

Two  times  each  year  tens  of  thousands  come  on 
long  pilgrimages  to  worship  "Our  Divine  Lord  of 
Esquipulas,"  as  it  is  termed. 

The  priest  in  charge  told  the  writer  that  they  did 
not  only  come  from  all  over  Central  America  and 
Mexico,  but  from  South  America  and  the  United 
States  and  Europe. 

The  writer  must  confess  that  he  went  on  a  long 
pilgrimage  also.  He  saw  the  idol  and  preached  the 
gospel.  In  the  winter  season  the  pilgrimages  are 
from  January  1  to  15.  The  15th  being  the  great 
day,  we  arranged  to  arrive  on  that  morning  by 
arising  at  2  o'clock  and  making  a  long  ride  before 
10  a.  m. 

The  shrine  or  temple  where  the  idol  is  kept  is  in 
the  outer  edge  of  the  town  of  Esquipulas,  near  the 
Honduras  border,  between  two  very  high  moun- 
tains. The  idol  is  an  image  of  Jesus  Christ  ona 
yard  and  a  half  tall.  This  being  the  Spanish  meas- 
urement of  33  inches  to  the  yard,  makes  the  idol 
49  1-2  inches  hi2;h.     In  color  it  is  black.       The 


THEOUGH   CENTEAL  AMEEICA.       11 

priest  told  us  that  this  was  the  color  of  Christ  when 
the  blood  coagulated.  It  is  generally  spoken  of  as 
the  ^Tilack  Christ."  It  is  said  to  be  more  than  300 
years  old,  and  is  kept  in  the  rear  of  the  large  tem- 
ple. There  are  images  of  two  women  kneeling  at 
the  foot  of  the  cross  weeping,  and  the  three  figures 
are  in  a  large  glass  case. 

On  either  iide  there  is  a  door  with  steps  leading 
up  to  c'lc  ear-e,  and  room  for  passage  through,  it  just 
back  of  the  three  figures.  The  lir?:  puir  of  steps 
are  climbed  by  the  pilgrims  on  their  knees  with 
hands  up,  or  folded.  Those  who  are  most  holy,  or 
have  the  most  devout  spirit  go  on  their  knees  clear 
through  the  long  stone-floored  church ;  others  begin 
on  the  rough  cobble  stones  on  the  street  and  reacn 
the  idol  with  both  elbows  and  knees  bleeding  and 
raw.  We  had  to  weep  as  we  watched  two  little 
pale-faced  girls  in  rags  going  on  their  sore  knees, 
with  eyes  set  in  the  direction  of  the  image. 

After  climbing  the  stairs  the  worshippers  pass 
through  the  glass  case  behind  the  images  on  their 
knees,  kissing  the  images  and  ithe  foot  of  the  cross 
on  which  the  'Talack  Christ"  is  hanging.  As  they 
pass  out  they  throw  their  offerings  in  a  vessel  from 
which  it  slides  off  and  is  taken  by  the  priest.  Some 
having  no  money  bring  an  ear  of  corn  or  some  oth- 
er offering. 

When  the  last  kiss  is  given  they  spring  to  their 
feet  and  it  is  all  over.  Follow  the  crowd  to  the 
front  of  the  temple  and  there  they  are  found  gamb- 


12  ON  MULEBACK 

ling  in  the  street,  drinking  liquor  and  carousing. 
Just  to  the  right  of  the  temple  is  a  small  house 
which  can  be  reached  through  a  side  door  of  the 
Shrine.  There  four  men  sell  small  images  of 
"Eequipulas."  (The  priest  calls  it  "our  divine 
Lord  of  Esquipulas,"  but  it  is  generally  called  "Es- 
quipulas/'  or  "The  Black  Christ,")  We  had  a  rare 
privilege,  for  the  old  priest  seeing  us,  took  us  in 
charge  and  brought  us  around  in  front  of  the  im- 
age, had  the  curtain  raised,  which  always  hangs 
down,  and  showed  us  everything.  When  he  put  up 
the  curtain  the  priest  whirled  to  the  multitude  and 
waving  hie  hand,  growled  out  at  them  to  kneel  be- 
fore "Our  Lord  of  Esquipulas,"  and  every  one  but 
the  priest,  my  friend  and  myself  dropped  to  their 
knees.  Of  course  the  priest  was  too  holy  to  kneel 
and  we  were,  I  suppose,  not  good  enough. 

We  entered  the  room  where  they  were  selling 
idols,  but  they  were  slow  to  give  us  any  information 
when  we  asked  about  the  large  piles  of  images, 
numbering  thousands.  After  some  conversation 
they  were  convinced  that  we  were  not  foes,  so  the} 
told  us  they  had  all  been  blessed,  and  were  very  fine 
in  cases  of  sickness,  or  to  keep  evil  spirits  away. 
Some  of  them  were  especially  good  for  children 
when  teething,  if  they  were  worn  around  the  neck. 
We  purchased  some  with  the  solemn  promise  on 
their  part  that  the  priest  had  already  blessed  them 
in  a  way  that  they  could  be  worn  for  anything,  and 
get  good  results. 


THROUGH   CENTRAL   AMERICA.       13 

Thonsands  of  these  poor,  bare-footed,  ragged, 
hungry  wretches  walk  hundreds  of  miles,  sleep  on 
the  bare  ground  by  the  roadside  night  after  night 
to  get  there,  and  then  invest  what  money  they  have 
in  one  of  these  idols  for  each  member  of  the  family, 
being  made  to  believe  they  carry  with  them  certain 
virtues. 

On  our  way  to  Esquipulas  we  asked  many  pil- 
grims who  were  on  their  way  back,  if  Esquipu- 
las was  doing  many  miracles  this  year, 
and  they  would  tell  us,  "Yes,  yes, 
many."  They  said  people,  long  blind,  were 
receiving  their  sight.  Pasted  in  the  shrine  we  saw 
several  statements  by  those  who  said  they  had  been 
healed  by  this  idol.  These  of  course,  were  con- 
coctions of  the  priest  for  the  delusion  of  the  igno- 
rant multitudes. 

The  reader  should  understand  that  it  is  not  our 
Jesus  they  pray  to,  but  this  image;  for  those  who 
come  to  worship  pray  only  to  the  "Lord  of  Esqui- 
pulas." The  crowds  are  so  great  that  on  all  roads 
for  at  least  a  hundred  or  more  miles  in  every  di- 
rection there  are  brush  covered  sheds  erected,  and 
cooking  places  arranged,  so  the  pilgrims  can  be  fed 
and  cared  for.  We  saw  these  in  Guatemala,  Hon- 
duras and  Salvador. 

As  one  nears  the  shrine  on  the  mountain  tops 
will  be  seen  large  piles  of  stones,  some  of  the  heaps 
as  large  as  a  small  hut.     These  stones  are  carried 


14  ON  MULEBAOK 

there  by  the  pilgrims,  to  do  penance;  we  were  told 
that  many  were  carried  even  from  Mexico. 

As  we  neared  the  city  we  met  a  crowd,  and  with 
it  an  old  woman  possibly  eighty  years  of  age.  We 
inquired  how  far  they  had  to  go,  and  learned  they 
lived  between  200  and  300  hundred  miles  distant, 
but  on  they  went  through  the  mud  and  rain,  with 
the  poor  old  woman  following.  When  she  reached 
home  she  would  have  walked  600  miles  to  pray  to 
a  piece  of  wood  49  1-3  inches  high,  but  her  heart 
would  still  be  heavy  and  her  soul  unrelieved. 

The  priest  complained  to  us  that  the  receipts 
were  not  so  great  now  as  they  were  many  years  ago. 
On  the  roads  we  passed  thousands  of  pilgrims; 
many  of  them  were  old  people  and  mothere  with  a 
pack  on  their  head  and  a  child  tied  on  the  back. 

We  rented  a  building,  set  up  our  stereopticon  at 
night  and  preached  the  gospel,  while  two  priests 
stood  at  the  door  calling  to  the  people,  "do  not  go 
in  there;  those  are  Protestants."  But  the  spell  h 
wearing  off  and  they  cannot  control  the  people  is 
they  once  did,  so  many  came  in  and  seemed  eager 
for  gospel  light. 

The  first  thing  to  greet  us  on  our  arrival  in  the 
town  was  a  large  crowd  of  Indians  with  packs  on 
their  backs,  kneeling  at  the  edge  of  the  public 
square  in  the  mouth  of  the  street  which  led  across 
the  valley  to  the  door  of  the  shrine.  They  were 
kneeling  in  the  street  with  faces  toward  the  shrine, 
chanting  a  prayer  to  the  "Lord  of  Esquipulas."  The 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.      15 

sun  was  hot;  they  were  ragged,  bare-footed  and 
dirty,  starting  on  a  tramp  of  possibly  a  few  hun- 
dred miles  and  must  now  say  good-bye  to  Esqui- 
pulas.  We  moved  around  in  front  to  take  their 
picture,  and  watched  them  leave  with  tears  drip- 
ping off  their  faces. 

Nothing  is  left  undone  to  keep  these  poor  people 
in  ignorance  and  superstition.  Everything  is  be- 
ing done  to  make  things,  even  life  itself,  have  a 
ghostly,  mysterious  aspect. 

As  we  neared  Esquipulas,  the  natives  with  us 
stopped  and  said,  "Out  there  where  those  people 
arc,  is  the  last  place  of  worship  when  leaving  the 
city."  We  stepped  aside  about  seventy-five  feet 
from  the  road  and  found  the  people  around  a  large 
stone.  Others  as  they  passed  would  stop,  "make 
the  sign  of  the  cross,"  and  leave  a  stick,  stone  or 
flower.  We  saw  where  loads  of  candles  had  been 
burned,  and  began  to  inquire  about  it.  We  were 
told  first  by  a  native  preacher  whom  we  knew  well, 
and  second  by  two  Indians  who  traveled  with  us; 
then  by  many  of  the  pilgrims  themselves,  the  same 
story.  The  priests  say  those  two  large  stones  were 
a  man  and  woman  at  one  time.  The  woman  was 
the  man's  god-mother.  The  priest  came  along 
there,  so  they  said,  and  found  them  committing 
adultery.  He  cursed  them  and  they  both  turned 
to  stone  immediately,  and  every  year  on  the  day 
when  this  miracle  was  performed  the  priest  comes 
out  and  says  "mass"  over  them.     Of  course,  our 


16  ON  MULEBAOK 

native  preacher  and  two  Indians  were  laughing 
about  such  delusion,  but  the  other  people  were  giv- 
ing it  as  facts  they  believed.  We  do  not  say  the 
priest  really  teaches  this;  though  we  do  not  for  a 
moment  doubt  it;  but  the  people  in  general  believe 
it,  and  we  ourselves  saw  the  worship  carried  on. 

Where  is  the  God  of  Abraham  and  Isaac  ?  Where 
is  Elijah's  God  who  answers  by  fire?  Do  we  want 
this  superstition  to  continue?  If  we  do  not  why 
not  do  something?  This  is  the  greatest  place  on 
the  Western  Hemisphere  for  a  great  camp  meeting. 
Think  of  the  thousands  of  tracts  and  testaments 
that  could  be  sent  to  every  part  of  Central  America. 
Here  is  the  place  for  a  hard  working  missionary. 
The  greatest  good  that  could  come  to  Central  Amer- 
ica would  be  to  destroy  faith  in  Esqvipulas;  and 
that  place  is  the  point  to  work  from,  for  the  people 
who  have  that  faith  come  there. 


THKOUCIH   CENTT^AL  AMERICA.       17 


CHAPTER  III. 

GUATEMALA. 

One  of  the  most  important  of  the  seven  Central 
American  countries  is  the  Republic  of  Guatemala, 
lying  just  south  of  British  Honduras  and  Mexico. 
It  is  a  republic  of  twenty-one  states,  and  the  con- 
stitution provides  for  a  government  much  like  our 
own,  but  at  its  best  it  is  little  more  than  a  monar- 
chial  government.  They  say  bullets  are  the  tickets 
by  which  a  man  is  elected.  I  have  been  told  that 
on  election  day  these  Indians  and  the  more  igno- 
rant Spanish  natives  are  marched  to  the  polls  and 
asked  what  their  names  are,  and  the  men  in  charge 
of  the  polls  do  the  rest.  They  simply  register  the 
man  for  the  candidate  they  want  elected. 

The  land  here  is  very  fertile  and  the  climate 
ideal.  Much  of  Guatemala  is  mountainous,  with 
many  leading  towms  and  cities  four  to  five  thousand 
feet  high.  On  account  of  this  we  have  real  cool 
weather,  though  we  are  in  the  tropics.  I  have 
found  an  overcoat  very  acceptable,  and  heavy  cover 
is  a  luxury  at  night. 

The  ideal  climate  and  fertile  soil  make  it  an 
exceptionally  good  coffee  country.  Porto  Rico  cof- 
fee is  high  priced,  though  it  grows  well  there  be- 
cause it  must  be  shaded  while  growing;  so  coffee 
is  only  found  in  Porto  Rico  growing  among  large 


18  ON  MULEBACK 

trees.  Not  so  in  Guatemala.  The  coffee  groves 
are  like  well-kept  orchards,  with  nothing  but  coffee 
— unless  it  be  bananas  planted  between  the  trees. 
Not  only  do  they  save  the  trouble  and  expense  of 
shading  the  coffee  trees,  but  the  fertile  soil  not  hav- 
ing to  produce  shade  for  the  trees,  grows  a  far 
heavier  crop  of  the  coffee  beau.  It  is  common  to 
see  coffee  trees  loaded  so  that  it  is  necessary  to  prop 
the  limbs.  Good  crops  of  corn,  cane,  etc.,  are  also 
raised  here. 

The  great  trouble  is  lack  of  development  and 
capital.  I  am  writing  from  Coban,  the  capital  of 
the  state  of  Alta  Vera  Paz,  and  the  geographical 
center  of  the  Eepublic.  But  to  get  here  I  had  to 
travel  more  than  one  hundred  miles  on  little  boats, 
then  thirty  miles  on  a  little  railroad;  (that  is  the 
full  length  of  the  railroad  line).  We  then  came 
over  the  mountains  for  sixty  miles  on  horseback, 
and  the  only  mode  of  transferring  our  baggage  WdS 
on  the  backs  of  eleven  Indians.  There  are  times 
during  the  year  when  a  two-wheeled  ox-cart  can  go 
over  this  mountain  trail,  but  in  this  way  and  on  the 
backs  of  mules  all  the  freight  is  carried.  The  cof- 
fee goes  to  Europe  by  Indian-back  and  S.  S.  Com- 
pany. Land  down  here,  now  selling  for  a  few 
cents  per  acre,  with  mahogany  forests  and  fertile 
soil,  would  be  worth  many  dollars  per  acre  in  one 
week's  time  if  the  American  flag  was  put  up. 

Guatemala  has  a  population  of  1,500,000  or 
2,000,000  people;  more  than  00  per  cent  of  this 


THROUGH   CENTEAL  AMERICA.       19 

number  are  of  illegitimate  birth,  and  very  few  can 
read  or  write.  The  state  language  is  Spanish,  but 
about  G6  per  cent  of  the  population  are  Indians, 
most  of  them  speaking  one  of  their  own  many  lan- 
guages. 

Guatemala  City,  the  capital,  is  a  city  of  76,000 
inhabitants,  with  two  missions  of  the  Presbyterian 
church  and  one  church.  There  are  many  towns 
and  cities  of  from  four  to  nine  thousand  people, 
many  of  them  Indian  towns,  with  no  church  or  mis- 
sionar}-;  even  the  Roman  church  in  a  number  of 
these  places  is  tumbling  down,  having  no  resident 
priest.  Thousands  of  these  Indians  in  the  interior 
work  on  plantations  where  they  are  kept  in  debt 
to  the  planters,  so  they  do  not  dare  leave,  and  their 
wages  run  from  2  cents  to  G  cents  per  day  in  many 
places. 

This  Republic  of  nearly  two  million  souls  has  a 
few  churches  and  mit=sions  doing  a  little  something 
for  the  souls  of  the  people,  but  the  combined  work 
of  all  only  amounts  to  forty  congregations. 

The  corruption  of  the  Priesthood  is  too  vile  to 
mention.  Rev.  ]\Ir.  Haymaker,  the  Presbyterian 
Missionary,  told  the  writer  of  one  of  their  Bible 
women  who  is  the  daughter  of  a  Roman  priest ;  and 
before  she  heard  of  Christ,  she  herself  became  the 
mother  of  a  child  whose  father  is  a  priest.  Think 
of  it ;  this  woman's  child  is  the  daughter  and  grand- 
daughter of  Roman  Catholic  priests,  who  are  sup- 


20  ON  MULEBAOK 

posed  to  be  so  pure  and  holy  that  they  must  not 
even  marry. 

A  brother  missionary  told  us  of  his  family  phy- 
sician, whose  brother  is  a  Roman  prieet.  This 
priest's  own  brother  told  our  missionary  friend 
that  his  brother,  the  priest,  was  the  father  of  twen- 
ty-three children;  yet  these  priests  are  the  spiritual 
advisers  of  the  people,  and  supposed  to  never  do 
wrong  or  make  a  mistake. 

If  the  Central  American  Eomanism  was  good, 
Guatemala  does  not  have  it,  for  even  Eome  has  not 
reached  the  people;  they  have  no  work  whatever 
in  many  places. 

There  are  perhaps  eight  or  ten  thousand  English 
speaking  people  on  the  Atlantic  coast  alone.  They 
are  working  for  the  United  Fruit  Company  and  the 
railroad,  both  of  which  are  American  corporations. 

For  a  missionary  the  door  is  wide  open  and  the 
field  is  white  unto  the  harvest.  They  have  "Stat- 
utory Eeligious  Liberty,"  and  the  greatest  liberty 
is  given  the  preaching  of  the  gospel.  The  Eoman 
priests  are  not  allowed  to  go  out  of  the  church  ex- 
cept with  civilian's  clothes  on.  They  have  very 
fine  gold  mines  in  this  country.  One  is  owned  by 
a  lady  from  Tennessee  and  is  said  to  be  the  best 
producer  in  the  country.  The  people,  like  all  Lat- 
in countries,  are  the  most  courteous  and  obliging. 
The  capital  in  all  places  I  have  yet  visited  is  largely 
German,  except  the  railroad  and  banana  plantations 
owned  by  the  United  Fruit  Company. 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.      21 

In  this  Republic  are  about  one  million  Indians 
who  are  ignorant,  superstitious  and  helpless.  They 
are  little  more  in  practical  life  than  slaves.  They 
are  compelled  by  the  authorities  to  work,  and  on 
these  large  fanns  they  only  get  3  to  6  cents  per 
day.  The  four  who  are  to  leave  here  tomorrow 
with  my  baggage  for  a  sixty-mile  journey,  were 
loaned  to  me  as  a  favor  by  a  man  who  owns  a  large 
farm  and  has  many  Indians.  Each  Indian  carries 
one  hundred  pounds  of  baggage,  a  large  part  of  the 
way  being  over  rocky,  muddy  mountain  trails.  On 
the  farm  when  they  work  regularly  they  receive 
3  3-4c  per  day.  and  one  of  them  is  the  head  of  a 
family. 

With  good  American  schools  .all  through  Guate- 
mala and  the  people  forced  to  send  their  children 
and  with  sufficient  capital  invested  to  thoroughly 
develop  the  natural  wealth  of  this  country,  it  would 
soon  become  a  paradise. 


22  ON  MULEiBAOK 

CHAPTEE  IV. 

ROMANISM   IN   GUATEMALA. 

For  centuries  the  great  problem  for  missions  iu 
Eoman  Catholic  countries  has  been,  "What  ad- 
vance will  they  allow  us  to  make?" 

This,  however,  is  no  longer  the  question  in  Gua- 
temala, Central  America.  That  has  been  answered 
by  the  government.  The  only  question  now  is, 
^'What  will  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  do,  and  how 
will  we  Americans  answer  the  Macedonian  cry 
coming  to  us  from  a  neighboring  country  without 
the  gospel,  but  open  to  it?" 

In  this  Eepublic  there  are  two  parties,  the  "Con- 
servatives" and  the  "Liberals."  The  former  is  pre- 
eminently a  Eoman  party ;  but  the  endeavor  of  the 
latter  is  to  drive  out  tyranny  and  ignorance  and 
give  place  to  education  and  elevation. 

*lt  is  estimated  that  in  the  whole  of  Guatemala 
there  were  probably  more  than  one  hundred  priests 
and  many  of  them  practically  idle.  The  days  of 
their  political  power  is  passed.  Under  the  rule  of 
President  Barrioe,  in  1872,  the  first  decisive  step 
was  taken,  permanently  establishing  religious  lib- 
erty. General  Barrios  ruled  the  country  with  an 
iron  hand  for  more  than  a  dozen  years,  and  was 
practically  dictator  during  that  time.  He  expelleJ 
the  Jesuits   from   Guatemala  by  a  law   which  is 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.       23 

strictly  enforced.  A  minister,  before  being  per- 
mitted to  enter  Guatemala,  must  swear  that  he  is 
not  a  Jesuit.  President  Barrios  confiscated  the 
monasteries  and  convents,  banishing  their  inhab- 
itants from  the  land,  and  left  only  the  churcli 
buildings,  under  certain  rental  privileges,  to  the 
Catholic  Church.  He  also  made  it  a  misdemeanor 
for  the  priests  to  appear  on  the  streets  in  their  cler- 
ical robes. 

It  was  under  Barrios  that  Protestant  mission 
work  was  started  in  Guatemala.  Although  his  re- 
quest may  have  been  a  political  move  to  play  the 
Protestants  against  the  Catholics,  it  is  still  a  fact 
that  he  persuaded  the  Presbyterian  Board  to  open 
a  mission,  paid  the  traveling  expenses  of  the  mis- 
sionary, provided  him  and  his  family  with  accom- 
modations, and  sent  his  own  children  to  school,  ad- 
vising other  officials  to  do  the  same.  This  gives 
to  Protestant,  and  particularly  to  Presbyterian  mis- 
sions, a  distinct  advantage  in  pursuing  religious 
work  in  Guatemala.  The  representative  of  mis- 
sion work  today  has  free  access  and  favor  of  all  the 
officials,  from  the  President  down. 

All  over  the  country  Catholic  -churches  are  fall- 
ing into  decay  from  neglect,  others  injured  by  earth- 
quakes, some  more  and  some  less,  but  no  effort  is 
being  made  to  repair  them.  They  are  seldom  vis- 
ited by  a  priest,  and  are  very  scantily  attended. 
Churches  that  twenty-five  years  ago  were  well  at- 


24  ON  MULEBACK 

tended  and  well  stocked  with  nicely  clothed  wooden 
saints,  are  now  almost  abandoned. 

In  pnblic  compaign  addresses  the  priests  and  the 
Roman  Church  are  bemeaned  and  exposed.  The 
governors  and  mayors  allow  Protestants  to  use  the 
school  houses,  theatres  and  court  houses  for  ser- 
vices. Not  that  they  are  religious,  nor  are  they 
Protestants,  but  they  are  tired  of  Eoman  ignorance, 
tyranny  and  superstition. 

The  reader  must  not  decide  that  the  other  party 
or  the  Eoman  Church,  are  dead,  for  they  are  not, 
and  it  will  no  doubt  only  be  a  question  of  time  un- 
til the  Conservative  party  will  be  in  power,  or  the 
Eoman  Church  will  bring  icomplaint  before  the 
present  party  about  the  liberties  allowed  the  Pro- 
testants, and  things  will  be  very  different. 

The  hope  of  the  gospel,  not  Protestantism,  but 
the  gospel — is  for  the  church  of  Jesus  Christ  to 
pour  men  and  money  in  here  NOW;  to  put  in 
schools,  hospitals,  publishing  plants,  orphanages, 
etc.,  and  let  the  general  public  see  that  the  hope  of 
the  country  is  the  gospel.  It  can  be  done  a  great 
deal  cheaper  and  with  less  effort  now  than  ever 
again  in  the  future. 

Guatemala  furnishes  the  Church  an  opportunity 
to  help  build. a  Christian  Eepublic.  Shall  we  ac- 
cept the  challenge  and  march  forward  to  victory? 

The  state  of  Baja  Vera  Paz,  with  twenty  villages, 
towns  and  cities,  eadh  of  which  should  demand  one 
or  more    pastors,  has  not    a  missionary  or    native 


THROUGH  CENTEAL  AMERICA.       35 

worker,  while  50,000  people  bow  down  to  images, 
not  knowing  God,  and  with  no  opportunity  to  hear 
or  learn  about  Him, 

'We  visited  one  place  where  the  Roman  church 
had  been  burned  and  no  steps  were  taken  to  rebuild. 
Responsible  citizens  declared  that  without  doubt, 
the  last  two  priests,  and  possibly  the  last  three,  had 
died  with  delirium  tremens.  There  were  a  few 
thousand  people  without  a  shepherd.  We  saw  them 
dance,  drink  rum  and  burn  incense  "before  God," 
and  cry  in  their  drunken  hilarity  as  they  drank, 
"Here's  to  God."  They  called  it  religion  and 
Christianity.  This  is  the  natural,  untrammeled 
stamp  of  Rome;  of  the  type  for  which  America  is 
preparing  the  way.  We  have  passed  more  than  once 
the  hut  of  an  old  priest  who  had  carried  drunken- 
ness and  uncleanness  to  such  excess  he  was  turned 
out  of  the  Church. 

The  priests  charge  large  prices  for  a  mass  and 
accept  the  money  these  ignorant  Indians  raise  in 
their  drunken  feasts,  held  for  this  purpose. 

The  field  is  ours,  protection  will  be  given;  we 
can  have  even  more  liberty  than  the  church  that 
has  been  here  for  400  years,  and  failed.  We  can 
give  them  an  illustration  of  what  light,  liberty, 
education,  elevation  and  the  gospel  will  bring  if 
we  will  only  pray,  give  and  go.  What  we  do  must 
be  done  quickly.     WHAT  WILL  WE  DO? 


26  ON  MULEBACK 

CHAPTER  V. 

TAKING  THE   GOSPEL  TO   LAKE  YZAEAL. 

The  lake  is  about  forty  miles  inland  from  the 
coast,  and  empties  into  the  Gulf  of  Honduras 
through  the  Eio  Duke.  It  is  about  fifteen  by  fifty 
miles,  and  in  the  early  history  of  Guatemala  the 
town  of  Yzabal  on  the  lake  from  which  it  takes  its 
name,  was  the  only  port  of  enh'y  on  the  Atlantic 
side  of  the  Eepublic.  This  location  was  chosen 
that  they  might  keep  in  hiding  from  the  pirates 
w^ho  at  that  time  roamed  the  seas.  Mrs.  Potts,  an 
American  lady,  who,  for  nearly  fifty  years,  has 
made  her  home  on  this  lake,  gave  us  much  inter- 
esting history  about  the  early  days  of  the  lake. 

To  get  to  Coban  and  other  points  in  the  interior 
we  must  pass  through  the  lake  to  the  Pio  Polochic. 
The  river  boat,  'Vesper,"  was  to  leave  Livingston 
Monday  morning,  so  we  chartered  a  little  launch, 
"The  Jobo,"  and  left  on  Saturday.  The  scenery 
up  the  Dulce  river  to  Lake  Yzabal  was  most  pictur- 
esque. As  we  passed  through  the  first  mountains 
the  cliffs  towered  above  us  on  each  bank  like  mass- 
ive masonry,  a  few  hundred  feet  high,  with  names 
of  visitors  written  along  here  and  there. 

After  a  delightful  voyage  of  several  hours  we 
reached  Bacadia,  an  Indian  town,  where  we  stopped 
for  a  service.     From  all  we  could  learn  through  the 


THROUGH   CEXTEAL  AMERICA.       27 

natives  and  Mrs.  Potts  we  were  the  first  to  preach 
Jesus  at  this  point.  We  sang  to  them  in  Spanish, 
preached  for  a  while  and  then  offered  our  Spanish 
Testaments  and  Gospels  for  sale,  several  of  which 
they  bought.  They  seemed  delighted  with  the  ser- 
vice, and  several  held  up  their  hands  that  they' 
wanted  us  to  pray  our  Jesus  to  save  them.  They 
seemed  glad  for  the  privilege  of  coming  out  to  our 
boat  for  us,  and  taking  us  back  again  in  their  little 
canoes.  The  little  village  is  made  up  of  trash  cov- 
ered huts  with  mud   floors. 

Our  next  point  was  San  Felipe.  Here  are  the 
ruins  of  the  old  fort  that  guarded  Lake  Yzabal,  for 
San  Felipe  is  right  at  the  mouth  of  the  Lake  whero 
it  empties  into  the  Rio  Dulce.  Dark  had  overtaken 
us,  but  Bro.  Butler  climbed  out  on  the  old  landing 
and  met  the  "comandante,"  the  officer  in  charge 
of  the  place.  After  telling  him  who  we  were  and 
what  our  business  was,  he  gave  us  a  cordial  recep- 
tion, and  offered  to  have  the  soldiers  clean  out  the 
mud  floored,  trash  covered  school  house,  so  we 
could  preach  and  use  our  stereopticon  with  views 
of  Christ.  The  entire  town  turned  out  to  hear  and 
see.  Many  kneeled  with  us  for  prayers,  and  we 
sold  several  portions  of  God's  word.  Some  of  our 
party  slept  ashore  on  the  floor  of  a  native  home, 
while  the  others  piled  in  the  little  boat,  Jobo.  The 
next  morning  before  daylight  we  pulled  out  for 
"Jocolo." 

Here  we  were  invited  to  Mrs.  Potts'  comfortable 


28  ON  MULEBACK 

American  home  for  breakfast.  While  this  good 
lady,  more  than  seventy  years  of  age,  has  spent 
nearly  fifty  years  in  this  country,  she  has  not  for- 
gotten how  to  make  a  bunch  of  American  boys  feel 
at  home.  After  eating  she  assisted  us  in  calling 
all  her  Indians  together  on  her  front  porch  for  a 
service.  Mrs.  Potts  told  us  that  she  knew  the  gos- 
pel had  never  been  preached  on  the  Lake  before. 

Leaving  Jocolo  at  9  :30  a.  m.  we  crossed  to  Yza- 
bal,  a  two  and  a  half  hours  trip.  We  were  soon 
ashore  and  held  a  short  service  and  announced  the 
night  meeting,  when  we  would  use  the  stereopticon. 
We  then  started  for  Los  Limones  where  we  held  a 
very  profitable  service  on  the  beach.  Here  they 
really  clamored  for  Testaments.  The  service  at 
Yzabal  that  night  was  fine;  God  was  there.  The 
first  time  the  gospel  was  preached  at  that  place  will 
never  be  forgotten. 

Monday  morning  we  were  up  at  3  o'clock  and 
sailed  for  Los  Eetor.  Arriving  at  7  we  found  the 
usual  reception  by  the  "comandante,"  who  had  the 
street  swept  and  dhairs  set  out.  God  was  pleased 
to  smile  upon  our  efforts  again,  and  we  then  set 
out  for  the  middle  of  the  Lake  where  we  were  to 
meet  the  boat  on  which  we  would  be  carried  up  the 
Polochic  river.  Brothers  Jackson  and  Dunkum 
told  us  good-bye  here  and  went  back  to  Livingston 
and  Port  Barrios.  The  separation  was  in  no  way 
pleasant,  for  our  hearts  had  become  closely  knit 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.       29 

together.     They  go  back  to  begin  real  missionary 
life,  and  we  press  on  in  our  evangelistic  work. 

We  waved  and  wept  as  long  as  we  could  see  each 
other.  In  thirty  minutes  we  had  entered  the  Polo- 
chic  river,  which  feeds  the  lake,  and  the  Gospel  had 
been  given  for  the  first  time  to  Lake  Yzabal. 


50  ON  iMULKBACK 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THREE  DAYS  IN  THE  SADDLE. 

We  were  met  at  Ponchajche  by  Brother  Tito 
with  six  horses  and  nine  Indians.  The  latter  were 
to  carry  our  baggage  by  taking  100  pounds  each, 
and  we  were  to  mount  the  horses  and  mules.  Sixty 
miles  lay  out  before  us  and  every  mile  through  the 
mountains.  We  were  to  start  at  an  elevation  of 
about  60  or  75  feet,  and  finish  our  journey  at  Coban, 
Gaut.,  4,000  feet  above  eea  level.  At  two  points 
were  to  cross  mountain  passes  more  than  5,000  feet 
high.  Our  freight  and  baggage  was  finally  repacked 
and  put  up  in  one-hundred  pound  cargoes,  and  the 
nine  Indians  were  started.  Later  we  mounted  our 
animals  with  one  pack  mule  loaded  with  suoh  things 
as  we  must  have  right  along,  but  could  not  tie  to 
our  own  saddles.  This  extra  luggage  consisted  of 
our  typewriter,  stereopticon,  one  case  of  slides,  ham- 
mock and  blankets.  Before  starting  we  went  to  an 
Indian  hut  where  we  got  something  warm  to  eat. 
Mr.  Peid  and  the  writer  lay  down  for  a  few  min- 
utes rest.  We  were  finally  called,  mounted  our  hor- 
ses and  started  on  the  journey. 

It  was  only  a  little  while  until  it  began  a  pouring 
rain,  but  we  just  unstrapped  our  rain-coats  and  um- 
brellas and  kept  on  at  a  good  trot.  The  horse  on 
which  the  writer  rode  lost  his  footing  in  a  big  mud 


TTTPtOUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.      31 

hole  and  went  clown.  The  other  members  of  the 
party  helped  us  grunt  and  looked  on  until  we  were 
out,  and  then  enjoyed  the  laugh  at  our  expense. 
The  sun  slipped  away  without  saying  ''^good  night," 
and  dark  stole  upon  us  without  being  invited.  With 
our  pack  inule  in  front  we  turned  our  animals  loose, 
Indian  fashion,  the  first  following  the  pack  mule, 
and  each  following  the  other;  up  and  down  hills, 
through  gushing  streams  and  deep  mud  holes  we 
plunged  on.- 

An  hour  or  two  of  dark  had  elapsed  before  we 
found  a  mountain  village  well  lighted  by  candles 
and  lanterns.  One  of  the  first  things  we  passed 
was  a  hut  wide  open  with  a  large  "Image,"  before 
which  burned  several  candles.  In  front  of  another 
house  we  sat  in  our  saddles,  while  the  rain  poured, 
begging  for  a  place  to  spend  the  night.  Finally 
two  houses  were  opened  where  we  could  have  cots, 
and  the  "]\Iayor"  agreed  to  feed  us.  He  lived  in  a 
mud-floored,  trash  covered  cabin,  but  we  were 
thankful  for  such  favors.  We  sat  at  the  table  eat- 
ing while  they  cut  up  a  hog  in  18  inches  of  us. 

Leaving  Tucuru  at  9  :30  a.  m.  we  had  real  moun- 
tain trails  to  Tamahu,  where  we  stopped  for  dinner. 
At  'this  place  we  went  into  an  old  dilapidated  Roman 
Church.  The  crosses  and  idols  were  piled  in  on  both 
sides.  We  read  on  one  large  cross  the  date  when 
the  Pope  had  sent  it  out  from  Rome,  and  that  any- 
one who  kissed  it  with  reverence  would  be  granted 
one  hundred  days  indulgence.     Do  not  forget  that 


32  ON  MULEiBACK 

it  was  well  cased  up  with  glass,  and  a  goodly  sum 
of  money  was  nece?i5ary  ito  have  the  privilege  of  kiss- 
ing it. 

After  dinner  we  only  rode  a  little  while  until 
we  passed  a  shed  covered  with  trash,  standing  by  the 
roadside,  under  which  stood  three  half  rotten  cros- 
ses. Before  them  were  burned  eandles  and  withered 
flowers.  These  crosses  we  found  along  the  entire 
route.  Then  came  a  pack  train  of  loaded  mules, 
twenty-eeven  strong.  Hard  riding,  which- neariy  laid 
some  of  us  up,  brought  us  to  Tactie  by  dark.  The 
rooms  had  four  cots  each,  but  the  dirt  floors  were 
covered  with  pine  needles. 

They  were  having  a  religious  "fiesta"  at  this 
town,  60  we  went  up  to  see.  In  front  of  the  church 
the  music  was  furnished  by  four  boys  beating  on  a 
*^Marimba."  It  is  a  crude  looking  instrument  made 
of  wood  on  which  they  beat  with  a  stick,  making 
really  beautiful  music.  While  the  women  were  on 
the  inside  praying,  the  men  were  in  front  firing  ofl 
torpedoes  and  the  boys  were  screaming  and  fighting. 
We  passed  on  to  see  the  Indian  carriers  lying  on  the 
paved  streets  sleeping  on  the  stones. 

Arising  before  daylight  we  climbed  into  our 
saddles  again  for  the  third  day,  to  com- 
plete our  journey.  Several  miles  out  from 
Coban,  Brother  Anderson,  one  of  the  Co- 
ban  missionaries,  met  us  on  the  little  trail.  It 
was  a  happy  meeting.  Those  whose  labors  have  not 
called  them  to  places  where  they  never  see  a  Chris- 


3 

n 

CO 


«<^ 

cT 
•-t 

o 

3 

o 
o 


THEOUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.       33 

tian  face  or  especially  an  American  face,  can  nev^er 
know  the  blessing  of  a  miesionary  visit. 

Nothing  of  special  interest  took  place  the  last 
clay,  except  when  we  would  have  a  race  to  catch 
some  brother's  animal  that  would  get  away  while  a 
girt  was  being  mended,  or  oranges  were  being 
gathered  by  the  wayside.  Many  were  the  old  songs 
we  sang  and  the  testimonies  given  along  the  way. 
On  arriving  we  were  sore  and  tired,  but  strong  in 
faith,  and  rejoicing  that  He  had  brought  us  safe 
thus  far. 


,"^4  ON  MTHLEiBACK 

CHAPTER  VII. 

ONE   MILLION   SLAVES. 

The  population  of  Guatemala,  C.  A.,  k  estimated 
at  one  and  one-half  to  two  million  people;  from 
66%  to  TO"/"  of  this  number  are  Indians.  We  are 
safe,  therefore,  in  the  statement  that  the  Indian 
population  of  the  Republic  of  Guatemala  exceeds 
one  million. 

Their  condition  in  every  respect  is  far  worse  than 
it  was  four  hundred  years  ago.  In  the  first  place, 
they  are  without  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  In 
the  second  place,  they  are  in  reality  nothing 
but  slaves.  In  each  municipality  there  is 
an  officer  who  looks  after  the  Indian  la- 
borers. If  any  one  desiring  help  fails  to  secure 
it,  all  he  has  to  do  is  apply  to  this  oflficer, 
state  the  number  of  "mosos"  he  wants  and  pay  him 
the  money;  the  officer  sends  to  the  huts  of  the  In- 
dians out  in  the  hills  for  them.  If  they  are  busy 
hoeing  in  their  garden  or  have  a  sick  wife  or  child 
and  should  give  this  as  an  excuse  they  will  likely 
be  beaten,  for  by  law  they  can  be  compelled  to  go. 
Of  course,  they  are  paid,  but  what  of  that?  They 
are  not  consulted  as  to  what  it  will  be  or  whether 
they  want  to  go  or  not.  The  officer  decides  all  of 
this  and  they  have  to  go. 

The  freight  to  the  interior  towns  is  carried  by 
them.    We  wired  to  a  certain  point  when  we  would 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.       35 

an-ive  in  about  sixty  miles  of  the  place;  a  man  went 
out  'to  hunt  ten  Indians  to  send  for  our  trunks,  beds, 
etc.,  but  could  not  get  a  man.  He  went  to  the 
officer  in  charge  of  that  work,  but  was  told  there 
were  none.  He  then  went  to  'the  "jefe"-tlie  gover- 
nor who  simply  sent  a  message  to  the  officer  to  bring 
the  Indians  at  once-,  and  they  were  brought.  The 
price  was  asked,  and  it  was  about  60c  American 
money.  The  trip  for  our  baggage  and  back  would 
require  fully  one  week,  and  each  man  must  carry 
at  least  one  hundred  pounds  through  the  mountains, 
follow  trails  over  rocks  and  through  mud,  board 
themselves,  and  sleep  wherever  night  overtook  them. 
Seven  days  doing  the  work  of  a  mule  for  60c, 
and  board  themselves  and  families.  Of  course,  we 
added  enough  to  this  to  make  each  man  feel  good, 
but  they  had  to  do  it.  The  wealthiest  man  in  the 
place  from  which  we  write,  pays  his  Indians  three 
and  one-half  cents  per  day  and  they  board  them- 
selves and  families.  This,  however,  is  not  the  worst. 
W'hen  a  contract  is  made  with  an  Indian  man  to 
move  onto  a  farm  with  his  family,  to  work  for  i 
certain  amount  per  day  or  month,  the  owner  of  the 
place  will  loan  him  money  or  sell  him  something 
and  thus  get  him  in  debt.  His  wages  will  never 
enable  him  to  pay  the  debt.  Then  there  is  a  law 
that  as  long  as  the  debt  is  unpaid  'he  can  be  held 
with  his  family,  and  even  his  children  after  him; 
and  should  they  run  away  they  can  be  hunted  up 
with  officers  and  brought  back. 


36  ON  MULEBAOK 

Poor  Indian !  he  is  down-trodden,  hated  by  the 
world,  and  neglected  by  the  church.  We  have 
passed  scores  of  them  in  the  road  who  would  not 
raise  their  head  or  turn  their  eyes  toward  us.  Here 
they  are  one  million  strong,  and  no  one  to  tell  them 
that  Jesus  cares.  Americans  and  Europeans  come 
down  here  to  work  them,  and  to  beat  and  curse 
them  when  they  don't  work.  But  no  American  or 
European  has  come  to  tell  them  about  Jesus.  Will 
you  pray  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  to  send  forth 
reapers  to  this  Indian  harvest? 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.       37 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

A  VISIT  TO  SAN  CRISTOBAL. 

l^e  place  is  named  for  Christopher  Columbus, 
who  has  lately  been  made  a  "Saint"  and  is  now 
worshipped  there.  We  had  sent  a  native  worker 
over  to  open  the  way,  and  on  Saturday  before 
Christmas  we  mounted  about  10  a.  m.  for  a  ride  of 
four  leagues  over  mountain  trails  for  a  visit  to  this 
town. 

The  writer  had  some  advantage  over  the  other 
five  members  of  the  party,  for  while  the  others 
laughed  at  my  horse-whieh  happened  to  be  a  mule- 
because  he  did  not  look  quite  so  fancy  as  other 
members  of  the  caravan,  he  made  up  for  it  all  when 
we  started  up  and  down  steep  mountain  sides  and 
cliffs;  for  he  could  climb  or  descend  them  like  a 
squirrel.  "Bill  and  I"  became  famous  for  our  climb- 
ing and  sure-footedness. 

Along  the  entire  journey  we  passed  Indians  walk- 
ing a'long  the  road  with  their  load  of  corn,  coffee, 
lumber,  wood,  or  some  other  cargo  on  their  backs, 
and  fastened  to  the  head,  all  as  "Tjeasts  of  burden." 
No  one  in  the  homeland  can  imagine  how  our  hearts 
bled  for  them — no  God,  no  home,  no  missionary. 

We  had  only  gone  the  distance  of  about  a  mile 
when  we  began  passing  "god  houses,"-little  trash 
covered  sheds  six  or  eight  feet  square,  with  three 


38  ON  MULEBACK 

or  more  old  wooden  crosses  inside ;  several  of  them 
had  a  few  flowers  left  by  some  poor  hungry-hearted 
Indian.  We  passed  such  sheds  all  along  the  way, 
and  when  near  San  Cristobal  we  found  a  more 
substantial  cabin  by  the  roadside  which  was  walled 
up  and  had  a  stout  door.  We  dismounted  and  en- 
tered the  place,  where  we  found  some  old  rotten 
"saints;"  several  crosses  had  half  rotted  and  fallen 
down.  Sitting  around  on  the  ground  were  the 
"saints,"-images  of  various  cliaracters  they  worship. 
But  the  reader  must  remember  that  whoever  the 
character  may  be,  it  is  a  particular  image  they 
worship;  for  with  one  image  of  the  same  name  in 
their  own  town  we  have  known  them  to  walk  more 
than  a  week  to  get  before  another  image  of  the  same 
saint  which  "had  more  power." 

On  our  arrival  at  the  town  we  found  the  "Com- 
mandante,"-the  head  officer  of  the  place,  who  had 
arranged  everything  for  us,  and  as  the  school  house 
was  small  he  decided  to  have  the  services  held  in 
the  large  porch  of  the  Court  House.  Do  not  decide 
that  he  was  a  Christian;  no,  not  at  all,  but  like 
many  officers  and  others  we  meet  in  these  countries, 
they  are  anxious  to  show  every  courtesy  and  kind- 
ness to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel. 

The  officer  had  his  soldiers  carry  in  seats  at  night 
and  return  them  the  next  morning;  he  also  kept 
soldiers  on  guard  each  night  to  see  that  the  curtain 
for  our  stereopticon  and  other  things  were  not  mo- 
lested.    On  Sunday  night  he  had  the  government 


THROUGH  CENTRAL   AMERICA.       39 

brass  band  of  sixteen  instruments  to  play  for  the 
service. 

This  is  a  small  city  of  a  few  thousand  people,  but 
no  spiritual  help  of  any  kind.  The  Roman  Churcn 
had  burned  six  months  before  our  visit  and  the  last 
priest,  we  are  told,  had  died  with  delirium  tremens. 
In  fact,  we  heard  that  the  last  three  had  died  the 
same  way.  Of  course,  there  are  "saint  houses"  all 
over  town,  but  it  is  not  possible  for  the  writer  to 
give  the  American  reader  the  faintest  idea  of  what 
they  are.  In  one  of  these  "saint  houses"  we  saw 
several  of  those  wooden  images  that  had  been  in  the 
church  when  it  burned.  Now  those  old  charred 
chunks  of  wood  with  no  semblance  of  hands  or  face 
left,  are  prayed  to  with  the  earnestness  we  would 
pray  to  Christ.  But  why  not,  for  they  have  onc^i 
been  "blessed"  by  the  priest,  and  now  have  great 
power. 

The  crowds  were  large  at  all  the  services  we  held, 
and  the  interest  such  that,  though  we  had  intended 
closing  Sunday  night,  we  felt  constrained  to  con- 
tinue until  Monday  night.  'Sunday  and  Monday 
we  visited  the  people  over  the  town  in  their  homes 
and  saloons. 

During  the  service  one  night,  a  prominent  lady 
who  was  under  deep  conviction,  asked  one  of  our 
party,  "Do  you  really  believe  that  in  this  religion 
one  could  find  peace  and  comfort  ?"  When  assured 
it  was  true  she  told  how  she  was  about  to  lose  her 
mind  because  of  her  troubled,  burdened  heart. 


40  ON  MULEBAOK 

Some  converts  from  the  meeting  in  Coban  came 
over  and  were  used  of  the  Lord.  One  of  them,  a 
Spanish  lady  from  one  of  the  very  best  native  fam- 
ilies, testified  and  told  the  people  they  knew  her  and 
had  known  her  father,  who  had  been  the  leading 
general.  Then  she  explained  how  she  got  hold  of 
a  Bible,  and  as  she  read  the  Spirit  convicted  her  of 
sin,  and  that  Jesus  had  forgiven  her  sins  and  she 
knew  it.  Then  she  urged  them  to  give  up  their 
idol  worship  and  let  Christ  come  into  their  hearts. 

Another  was  the  daughter  of  a  wealthy  German 
merchant  of  Coban.  When  she  gave  her  clear-cut 
testimony  a  friend  in  San  Cristobal  who  knew  not 
Christ,  listened  attentively,  and  as  they  walked  to 
the  hotel  together  this  friend  told  her  good-bye  and 
said,  "I  know  after  what  you  said  in  your  talk  you 
do  not  need  friends  like  me  so  this  will  have  to  be 
good-bye."  The  next  morning  the  lady  came  to 
tell  our  young  convert  good-bye  again  before  she 
left  the  city,  and  asked  her  not  to  drop  her  but  to 
pray  for  her.  She  expressed  the  wish  that  our 
meeting  had  not  closed  for  she  believed  the  Lord 
miglit  have  saved  her  and  given  her  the  peace  the 
others  had  found. 

We  stayed  three  days  and  the  trip  there  and  back 
with  our  board  amounted  to  $13.00.  But  oh,  how 
we  did  need  to  remain  for  ten  days,  which  could 
have  been  done  for  less  than  $50.00.  It  hurts  us 
to  know  our  hands  are  tied  and  we  cannot  do  what 
we  would  like.     We  had  to  leave  them  in  the  hands 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.      41 

of  heathen  people  and  heathen  customs.  It  would 
require  very  little  t^acrifice  on  the  part  of  some  of 
our  friends  to  put  a  ten  days'  meeting  in  many  of 
these  places.  Just  think,  my  dear  reader,  we  have 
here  scores  of  towns  with  a  population  varying  from 
five  to  twenty-five  thousand  and  not  a  missionary, 
or  even  a  Catholic  priest.  We  ])elieve  God  would 
wonderfully  hless  the  person  who  would  make  post^i- 
hle  the  way  of  salvation  to  these  cursed  and  benight- 
ed people. 

On  our  return,  after  a  few  hours  in  the  saddle, 
w^e  reached  a  spring  on  the  mountainside  where  we 
stopped  for  dinner.  x\s  we  sat  on  the  ground  to  eat 
we  watched  the  poor  Indians  pass  the  trail  with 
loads  of  freight  on  their  backs  and  thanked  God  for 
a  message  of  deliverance  for  this  people.  As  we 
began  singing  and  testifying  there  on  the  mountain 
how  the  Lord  did  come  upon  us  until  we  shouted 
and  wept  together.  The  only  sign  of  humanity  was 
a  few  little  trash  covered  huts  and  these  poor  In- 
dian beasts  of  burden  passing  at  intervals  along  the 
road. 

We  were  soon  back  in  the  saddle  and  on  our  way 
to  Cohan  where  we  w^ere  to  hold  a  Christmas  eve 
service. 


43  ON  MULEBACK 

CHAPTER  IX. 

A   HEATHEN   ROMAN"   FEAST. 

'Roman  Catholics  cannot,  and  it  is  next  to  im- 
possible for  American  Protestants  to  grasp  the  full 
meaning  of  the  now  common  expression,  ''Baptized 
Paganism."  To  understand  what  it  really  means, 
and  to  find  that  the  term  is  none  too  strong,  it  is 
necessary  to  travel  through  Latin  America.  The 
principal  or  important  part  of  Romanism  in  South 
and  Central  America  are  the  feasts.  They  are,  in 
a  sense,  similar  to  what  is  meant  in  Protestantism 
by  a  "revival  meeting,"  or  "camp  meeting."  These 
are  the  times  when  crowds  are  attracted  and  all 
members  are  required  to  be  present,  provided  they 
are  "good  Catholics."  Those  who  are  better  ac- 
quainted with  this  organization  declare  there  are 
scores  of  feasts  in  a  year. 

During  the  week  before  Christmas  and  up  to 
January  6,  most  of  the  time  is  spent  in  these  feasts. 
The  writer  spent  December  22  and  23  of  1912  in 
San  Cristobal,  Guatemala,  C.  A.  At  the  time  of 
our  visit  the  Indians  were  observing  their  nine-day 
feast.  We  saw  "baptized  paganism"  demonstrated. 
Palm  covered  houses  had  been  built  for  the  occa- 
sion; some  were  used  for  selling  rum;  some  for 
dancing,  others  for  sacrificing  to  the  "saints,"  while 
still  others  were  kept  for  cooking,  eating  and  sleep- 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.      43 

ing.  During  these  nine  days  all  work  is  suspended 
by  the  participants,  and  some  move  in  from  miles 
away.  Everything  is  done  in  the  name  of  religion, 
or  religious  worehip. 

Of  course,  these  Indians  do  not  worship  their 
gods  of  pottery  and  clay  any  longer,  for  they  have 
been  "Christianized."  That  is,  they  have  had  the 
old  clay  gods  taken  from  them  and  images  of  Jesus, 
Mary  and  other  saints  have  been  given  instead. 
True,  they  do  not  know  who  the  saint  was,  when 
or  where  he  lived,  or  what  he  did,  but  what  of  that  ? 
They  only  know  of  the  little  piece  of  wood  and  they 
worship  these  "saints"  just  as  they  once  worshipped 
their  old  gods. 

At  the  feast  we  visited,  "twelve  apostles"  were 
in  charge.  They  had  one  room  where  they  skpt 
and  another  where  they  spent  the  time  while  not 
waving  the  censer  in  burning  incense,  or  dancing. 
We  have  been  in  some  vile  places,  but  this  room 
was  literally  blue  with  smoke,  and  these  apostles 
were  all  drinking,  some  of  them  so  drunk  they  could 
not  sit  up.  We  watched  them  as  in  their  turn  they 
would  take  the  censer  and  go  waving  it  before  the 
various  "saints" — the  images.  They  would  stagger 
from  one  to  the  other  with  the  censer  in  one  hand, 
while  with  the  other  they  would  accept  another 
glass  of  liquor  and  drink  it,  saying,  "Here  is  to  the 
health  of  God."     This  we  saw  repeatedly. 

Just  across  the  yard  under  a  shed  the  musicians, 
with  their  doleful  music,  both  night  and  day  fur- 


44  ON  MULEBACK 

nished  "time"  for  the  dancers.     It  was  a  soft  mud 
floor.     By  the  side  of  the  musicians  were  the  im- 
ages, the  principal  one  being  of  God,  and  it  was 
before  him  they  were  dancing.     The  liquor  glass 
was  continually  being  passed  among  them,  and  we 
often  eaw  them  so  drunk  they  could  not  hold  the 
glass;  one  woman  dancer  would  hold  the  head  of 
another,  while  a  third  would  try  to  pour  the  rum 
down  her  throat  as  she  muttered  in  her  delirium, 
"Here's  to  the  health  of  God."     Every  little  while 
a  piece  of  money  was  thrown  at  the  foot  of  the 
image  of  God  by  tho^e  dancing.       We  saw  them 
dance  and  drink  until  they  were  so  drunk  they  fell 
in  the  mud  and  had  to  be  dragged  out.     But  the 
reader  must  remember  this  is  Latin  American  Ee- 
ligion,  and  Rome  claims  it  as  her  own.     We  saw 
one  person  fight  as  many  as  three  people  while  thus 
dancing  before  "God." 

We  visited  'this  feast  on  three  occasions  and  asked 
all  questions  possible,  and  found  that  the  money  se- 
cured through  the  offerings  made  by  the  dancers 
was  to  be  used  in  paying  the  priest  for  a  mass  which 
was  to  cost  $200,  including  the  music.  How  much 
these  poor  barefooted,  half-clad  Indians,  who  are 
little  better  than  slaves,  need  this  kind  of  "religion" 
we  leave  the  reader  to  judge.  While  looking  at 
their  images  they  would  explain  to  us  who  they 
were,  but  no  two  of  them  would  tell  the  same  thing. 

We  have  talked  to  many  and  find  they  do  not 
look  beyond  the  image  to  a  higher  power,  but  pray 


THROUGH  CENTRAL  AMERICA.   45 

to  the  piece  of  wood  itself  and  believe  it  will  help 
them.  On  our  way  back  to  the  hotel  we  stopped 
in  a  little  store  and  found  a  picture  of  Jesus  on  the 
cross  hanging  in  the  store.  We  asked  the  woman 
about  it  and  she  told  us  it  had  been  blessed  by  the 
priest  and  therefore  had  great  power,  and  she  had 
hung  it  there  to  protect  the  store  in  her  absence. 

If  American  Roman  Catholics  could  see  what  we 
have  they  would  give  money  to  send  Christian  mis- 
sionaries to  these  countries,  to  give  the  people  the 
gospel.  Could  our  reader  see  these  poor  wretched 
people  as  we  have  seen  them,  kissing  the  images,  or 
the  tables  on  which  they  were  set,  and  then  get 
down  and  kiss  the  dirt  floor  before  them  we  be- 
lieve the  gospel  would  be  given  to  the  South  and 
Central  American  people.  Are  they  Christians? 
Do  they  need  help  ?     The  answer  must  be  ours. 


46  ON  MULEBACK 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE  CENSER  OF  A   HEATHEN   ROMAN   FEAST. 

The  censer  is  made  of  a  small  pottery  bowl  with 
two  handles  like  the  bail  of  a  bucket  crossing  each 
other  some  six  inches  above  the  bowl  at  right  an- 
gles. Fastened  to  these  handles  is  a  piece  of  wire 
six  or  eight  inches  long. 

The  priest,  or  chief  who  officiates,  holds  to  the 
wire  while  the  little  vessel  containing  burning  coals, 
with  a  foul  smelling  incense,  is  swung  in  front  of 
the  various  images. 

The  images  always  include  one  of  Christ,  the 
Virgin  Mary,  and  sometimes  God,  the  Father  and 
God  the  Holy  Ghost,  with  dozens  of  other  "saints" 
heard  and  unheard  of.  In  front  of  all  these  this 
censer  is  swung,  being  carried  from  one  thatched 
roof  shed  or  hut  to  another  where  the  various  im- 
ages are  located.  Of  course,  dozens  of  candles  are 
being  burned  before  the  saints,  more  of  them  being 
found  in  front  of  the  "saint"  most  highly  respected 
by  the  particular  community  giving  the  feast. 

These  feasts  last  nine  days,  and  it  was  on  the 
eighth  day  we  visited  one.  By  that  time  those  par- 
ticipating in  the  ceremonies  were  beastly  drunk,  for 
they  begin  drinking  rum  the  first  day  of  the  feast. 
Rum,  cigarettes,  and  cigars  seemed  to  make  up  the 
necessities  and  luxuries  of  these  gatherings. 

The  censer  was   always   earned  by   a  man  too 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.      47 

drunk  to  walk  steadily.  In  fact,  we  liave  seen  him 
stumble  and  go  down  with  it.  But  as  lie  staggered 
from  one  image  to  another  he  would  swing  the  cen- 
ser and  kiss  the  table  supporting  the  image,  many 
times  kissing  the  dirt  or  stone  floor.  As  he  passed 
about  in  the  midst  of  the  crowd,  various  "worship- 
ers" would  stop  him  to  pour  more  rum  down  his 
throat.  The  rum  is  free  to  everyone  participating 
in  the  ceremonies  and  they  fake  advantage  of  this 
free,  but  coveted  article.     , 

As  they  swallow  the  rum  from  time  to  time  they 
can  be  heard  to  say  in  their  drunken,  maudlin 
groans,  "Here  is  to  the  health  of  God."  Our  read- 
er must  remember  this  is  "Christian ( ?)  worship," 
and  these  are  "Christian ( ?)  people,''  because  thej 
are  part  of  the  350  million  who  belong  to  the  only 
church  of  God  on  earth,  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.  Yes^  they  are  everyone  counted  by  the 
priest  as  members  of  the  organization.  In  fact,  the 
feast  is  held  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  forward  the 
teachings,  and  financing  the  church. 

In  order  that  one  whole  family  may  have  the  full 
benefits  of  the  feast  and  not  have  their  happiness 
impaired  they  arrange  between  themselves  that  the 
husband  is  to  get  drunk  one  day  and  night  and  the 
wife  keeps  sober,  so  she  can  take  care  of  the  hus- 
band and  get  him  home,  or  to  their  camp.  The 
next  day  and  night  the  husband  must  keep  sob^-T 
in  order  to  care  for  his  wife  and  the  children  while 
they  take  their  turn  at  the  rum. 


48  ON  MULEBACK 

We  saw  the  wife  with  one  arm  around  the  neck 
of  her  husband  carrying  a  child  under  the  other 
arm,  perhaps  assisted  by  the  older  children,  leading 
the  husband,  beastly  drunk,  from  this  place  of 
worship.  Again  we  saw  the  woman  so  drunk  she 
was  unable  to  maintain  her  equilibrium  while 
dancing  before  the  images,  and  after  falling  in  the 
mud  in  raving  delirium  the  husband  would  drag 
her  away  to  be  stretched  out  and  covered  up,  more 
like  animals  than  human  beings. 

Our  Catholic  friends  in  America  with  all  sleepy 
Protestants,  must  remember  this  thing  is  not  done 
in  a  corner.  This  is  not  an  uncommon  occurrence, 
but  a  very  common  one. 

When  we  entered  the  room  of  the  "dignitaries," 
the  chiefs  and  their  principal  men  who  took  the 
leading  part  in  the  worship,  they  received  us  very 
cordially  and  invited  the  writer  and  his  interpreter 
to  have  a  seat.  The  room  was  blue  with  smoke, 
and  some  of  these  leading  Indians  were  too  drunk 
to  sit  alone.  They  immediately  offered  us  rum, 
then  cigars  and  cigarettes,  which  of  course  were 
courteously  refused. 

After  the  old  chief  had  swung  his  censer  from 
one  room  to  another  and  returned  again,  we  asked 
him  to  sell  us  the  censer,  which  he  stoutly  refused 
to  do.  We  begged  him  for  some  of  the  incentse, 
which  is  a  native  rosin.  They  held  a  conference 
and  at  first  refused  this,   as  it  had  been  already 


cr 
n 

n 


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&] 
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o 

3 


O 
3 


3 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.      49 

"measured,"  which  made  it  very  holy;  but  they 
finally  decided  to  give  us  each  a  large  spoonful. 

After  thanking  them  for  this  favor  we  took  our 
departure,  but  later  when  they  were  too  drunk  to 
remember  whether  the  censer  was  yet  holy  or  not, 
we  asked  another  man  to  sell  us  the  particular  one 
they  were  using  in  their  worship.  He  told  us  we 
could  have  it  the  next  day  after  the  feast  was  over ; 
but  we  insisted  we  had  to  leave  and  urged  that  we 
have  the  privilege  of  carrying  the  censer  with  us. 

One  of  the  head  men  was  very  drunk  and  ordered 
us  away,  but  when  he  left  the  room  two  others  final- 
ly consented  to  sell  us  this  "holy  vessel."  It  was 
the  one  they  were  using  in  their  "Roman  Catholic" 
worship,  but  surely  if  heathen  worship  can  be  found, 
this  is  heathen.  They  were  drinking  in  a  beastly 
carousal,  drinking  to  the  health  of  God;  they  kissed 
the  feet  of  these  dirty  wooden  images,  kissed  the 
tables  on  which  they  sat,  and  kissed  the  ground  in 
front  of  them.  As  we  questioned  them  about  the 
images  they  would  tell  us  what  great  power  they 
had. 

No,  they  do  not  worship  the  gods  of  clay;  they 
did  400  years  ago.  But  the  images  worshipped 
now  are  worshipped  in  the  same  spirit  as  the  gods 
of  their  fathers  centuries  ago. 

May  God  pity,  and  His  people  pray  for  the  bap- 
tized paganism  in  Central  America. 


50  ON  MULEBAOK 

CHAPTER  XI. 

TODAY  OR  NEVER. 

'For  four  hundred  years  there  hae  not  been  the 
favorable  opportunity  for  missionary  work  in  Guate- 
mala, C.  A.,  there  is  today.  'But  the  thing  that 
should  concern  all  interested  in  these  benio-hteJ 
souls  is  that  a  few  more  years  will  in  all  probability 
close  this  wide  open  door.  The  Radical  party  is 
now  in  power,  and  they  are  ruling  with  an  iron 
hand.  This  party  hates  the  present  system  of  Ro- 
manism, and  in  their  public  gatherings  the  politi- 
cians utter  the  most  scathing  words  against  the  Ro- 
man priests,  such  as  "Get  rid  of  them;  they  hinder 
progress,"  etc. 

As  Protestant  missionaries  advocate  and  help 
"with  progress  they  are  encouraged  by  being  allowed 
to  preach  in  school  houses  and  other  public  build- 
ings. All  papers  and  tracts  printed  here  in  the  Re- 
public can  be  sent  through  the  mails  anywhere  in 
the  Republic  and  throughout  Central  America  ab- 
solutely free.  Brother  Butler  was  allowed  to  hold 
meetings  in  an  old  Convent,  which  had  been  taken 
from  the  Roman  Church  by  the  Government  when 
they  drove  the  priest  out  of  the  place  for  drunken- 
ness. , 

At  the  present,  Rome  is  making  little  or  no  prog- 
ress.    Their  churches  are  dilapidated  piles  of  stone 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.       51 

and  mortar,  badly  kept.  In  many  towns  of  a  few 
thousand  population  their  large  stone  churches  are 
tumbling  down,  and  a.  priest  only  comes  once  in  one 
or  three  months.  Some  c'hurches,  destroyed  by 
earthquakes  a  few  years  ago,  have  never  been  re- 
built. 

It  is  only  a  question  of  a  few  years  until  the 
Conservative  Party  will  get  in  power  and  then  these 
golden  opportunities  will  cease.  Or  even  with  the 
present  party  in  power,  the  Roman  authorities  will 
soon  make  a  howl  about  the  favors  being  shown  to 
Protestants,  which  will  close  many  doors  now  open. 
Our  hope  is  to  "strike  while  the  iron  is  hot."'  We 
must,  for  the  glory  of  God,  get  a  good  strong  foot- 
hold now,  so  we  will  have  influence  when  doors  be- 
gin to  close.  We  must  get  good  schools  and  hos- 
pitals started  and  show  the  public  we  do  not  only 
believe  in  progress,  but  actually  help  with  it. 

Tliose  on  the  field  who  are  prayerfully  studying 
conditions  here  believe  that  if  all  the  men  and 
money  that  would  be  put  in  Guatemala  in  the  next 
twenty-five  years  could  be  put  in  during  the  next 
three  years,  it  would  bring  twenty-five  times  the  re- 
sults by  the  end  of  the  twenty-five  years. 

The  needs  are  appalling;  the  opportunities  are 
golden;  the  neglect  in  the  homeland  is  criminal. 
Pray  ye  therefore  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  to  send 
forth  reapers. 


52  ON  MULEBACOs: 

CHAPTER  XII. 

BAJA  VERA  PAZ. 

Guatemala,  C.  A.,  being  a  Republic,  is  divided 
into  twenty-three  states.  In  the  central  part  of  the 
Republic  one  very  important  state  is  that  of  Baja 
Vera  Paz.  The  location  will  not  miss  the  geo- 
graphical center  far.  The  name  means  "Low  True 
Peace/'  while  the  next  door  neighbor  is  the  state 
of  Alta  Vera  Paz,  which  means  "High  True  Peace.'' 

In  coming  from  Coban,  the  capital  of  Alta  Vera 
Paz,  to  Baja  Vera  Paz,  a  distance  of  more  than 
fifty  miles,  the  traveler  will  have  his  choice  of  walk- 
ing or  taking  the  saddle ;  in  either  case  three  moun- 
tain ranges  must  be  crossed,  each  one  bringing  him 
into  a  lower  district. 

We  left  Coban  in  very  rainy,  chilly,  muddy 
weather,  but  the  second  day  out  we  tied  our  coats 
on  the  saddles  while  traveling  through  dust  under 
a  hot  tropical  sun,  with  everything  about  us  having 
the  appearance  of  a  great  desert.  On  reaching  the 
top  of  the  third  mountain  we  saw  the  heart  of  Baja 
Vera  Paz  stretching  out  in  front  of  us  in  a  great 
basin-valley  with  twenty  towais,  cities  and  villages. 

Salama,  a  city  of  12,000  people,  is  the  capital  of 
■the  state,  and  in  fact  it  is  a  beautiful  little  place, 
well  watered,  but  full  of  images,  with  no  gospel  or 
salvation.     The  state  is,  on  the  whole,  very  com- 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.      53 

pact.  While  of  course  there  are  a  few  thousand 
people  scattered  through  the  mountains,  the  greater 
part  of  the  population  will  be  found  in  the  twenty 
towns. 

The  writer  left  Salama  one  morning  at  10  o'clock 
for  Cubulca,  thirty-five  miles  away.  We  passed 
through  San  Meguil  Chica,  a  town  of  1,500,  and 
Ravinal,  a  much  larger  place,  and  reached  Cubulca 
that  evening  in  time  for  a  service.  Traveling  in 
the  opposite  direction  from  the  Capital  it  is  only 
about  one  hour's  ride  to  San  Jeronemo,  a  place 
nearly  as  large  as  the  capital.  In  all,  this  state 
contains  more  than  50,000  people,  and  there  is  not 
a  missionary  or  native  worker  in  all  the  territory, 
though  it  is  within  five  days'  travel  of  the  United 
States. 

A  good  man  with  a  consecrated  wife  could  live  In 
Salama  and  reach  any  part  of  the  state  on  hort=e- 
back  for  a  service  the  evening  of  the  same  day  he 
left  home.  The  population  of  the  state  is,  we  be- 
lieve, largely  Indian.  They  are  the  most  accessible 
Indians  we  have  met,  and  very  kind.  The  district 
has  one  great  advantage,  and  that  is,  the  Indians  as 
well  as  the  'Tadinos,"  all  speak  Spanish ;  one  tongue 
puts  the  missionary  in  touch  with  all  the  people. 

The  question  is  not  "will  the  people  hear  the 
gospel  since  they  are  all  Catholics?"  That  has 
been  answered ;  they  are  tired  of  being  deluded,  and 
want  some  light.  The  government  is  decidedly  in 
favor  of  anything  that  offers  light,  elevation  and 


54  ON  MUiLEBACiK 

help  for  the  people.  The  governor  "has  shown  us 
every  kindness.  We  have  been  given  the  use  of 
school  houses,  government  theatres,  and  while  in 
Salama  the  Governor  himself  came  out  to  the  ser- 
vice and  spoke  freely  about  these  things..  One  day'i 
ride  from  the  railroad  will  take  one  to  the  center 
Qf  the  district. 

y  Some  one  who  is  praying  for  the  Lord  to  give  him 
a  place  to  work  in  Hie  service  can  find  it  in  Baja 
Vera  Paz,  The  work  will  be  hard  and  the  results 
slow,  but  a  people  who  are  dying  without  God,  with 
no  hope  of  hearing  about  Him  would  hear.  Only 
yesterday  we  rode  up  to  a  hut  and  asked  for  some 
*'tortella  and  frijoles" — ^beans  and  ashcakes.  We 
sat  on  the  dirt  floor  and  ate  our  dinner.  The  old 
grandfather,  76  years  of  age,  told  one  of  our  party 
that  he  knew  nothing  about  how  to  get  to  heaven. 
He  is  tottering  on  the  brink  of  the  grave,  living  a 
few  miles  from  a  Roman  Church,  and  no  doubt  has 
his  name  recorded  as  a  member,  but  absolutely  had 
no  idea  of  salvation.   >/ 

The  Indians  are  even  in  a  worse  state,  for  they 
are  hardly  civilized.  We  have  met  scores  of  them 
in  the  road  and  had  them  run  out  and  climb  the 
rocks  and  banks  to  keep  away  from  us,  like  fright- 
ened animals. 

To  go  to  this  district  would  mean  hardships,  but 
the  people  will  get  the  gospel ;  to  stay  in  the  United 
States  there  will  be  comforts,  but  this  people  will 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.       55 

live  in  ignorance  and  sin,  die  without  hope  and 
wake  up  in  hell. 

Baja  Vera  Paz  needs  the  gospel,  and  some  man 
or  woman  must  bring  it.  ^^As  ye  would  the  heathen 
should  do  unto  you  if  you  were  where  the  heathen 
are,  and  the  heathen  were  where  you  are,  so  do  ye 
unto  the  heathen." 


50  ON  MULEBACK 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

AN  INDIAN  FEAST. 

Just  before  reaching  San  Megiiil  Chica  we  mcit 
two  half-savage  Indians  who  were  bloody  all  over. 
One  of  them  had  his  head  tied  up  with  a  bloody 
cloth,  and  the  other  had  a  hole  three  inches  long  cut 
in  his  hat  where  he  had  been  strack  with  a  big 
knife. 

As  we  reached  the  town  we  came  to  a  square 
given  over  to  an  Indian  feast.  How  their  red 
clothes  did  shine  in  the  sun;  dozens  of  them  were 
cooking,  others  dancing,  and  all  were  there  to  "wor- 
ship." After  tying  our  horses  outside  we  went  into 
the  enclosure;  we  found  them  nearly  all  drinking, 
and  a  goodly  number  quite  drunk.  But  our  re- 
ception could  not  have  been  kinder.  We  went  about 
in  their  midst  shaking  hands  with  them.  After  a 
while  we  were  asked  to  eat.  As  our  appetites  had 
been  somewhat  encouraged  we  sat  down  on  the 
ground,  took  our  dinner  in  a  gourd,  and  tried  to  do 
it  justice,  without  either  knife,  fork  or  spoon. 

The  crowd  was  very  large,  and  the  opportunities 
at  such  places  are  great.  When  we  reached  the 
central  point  of  the  feaet  we  spoke  to  the  old  chief 
in  charge  and  entered  a  dark  little  hovel  to  find 
images  of  Jesus  and  others.  Before  these  images 
they  did  their  drinking  and  dancing.  They  bought 
a  large  number  of  Testaments  and  Gospels,  but  on 
account  of  the  twenty-five  miles  lying  ahead  of  us 


THEOUGH   CENTEAL  AMEEICA.      57 

to  be  covered  by  night  we  could  spend  but  little 
time  with  them. 

We  had  only  gone  a  few  squares  until  we  met 
several  men  coming  in  a  march,  each  carrying  a 
doll  in  hic5  arms.  We  stopped  them  and  learned 
that  these  were  the  'Things"  who  went  to  see  the 
Infant  Jesus,  and  these  men  w'ere  on  a  solemn 
religious  march.  As  to  why  they  did  this,  and  what 
the  results  would  be  no  one  could  tell.  One  of  the 
men  was  old  and  blind,  some  were  drunk,  but  we 
halted  the  procession  and  one  of  our  party  began 
reading  to  them,  and  urged  them  to  flee  from  the 
wrath  to  come.  Some  who  stopped  a  half  square 
away  gradually  slipped  down  closer  until  they  joined 
the  crowd. 

In  passing  through  the  town  we  went  into  the 
Eoman  Church  and  found  the  same  things  there  we 
had  found  elsew^here.  Over  the  old  church  men 
and  women  were  burning  candles,  or  waving  an 
earthen  pot  with  fire  and  burning  rosin.  We  asked 
why  they  did  it,  but  could  scarcely  get  two  answers 
alike. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  most  of  these  people 
who  indulge  in  this  kind  of  wort^hip  are  so  ignorant 
they  cannot  read.  The  priests'  services  are  '^few 
and  far  between,"  and  generally  in  Latin.  These 
poor  wretches  are  almost  in  a  hopeless  state  unless 
some  one  can  take  the  time  to  go  to  them  and 
read  the  Bible,  explain  it  and  tell  them  what  to  do, 
and  why  they  are  doing  the  things  they  now  call 
worship. 


58  ON  MUlLEBACK 

CHAPTEE  XIV. 

THROUGH  BAJA  VERA  PAZ. 

We  entered  the  state  away  back  in  the  mountainb 
perhaps  twenty  miles  before  reaching  the  capital, 
Salama.  As  we  passed  through  a  village  we  looked 
up  the  long  valley  and  saw  two  others,  but  our  real 
campaign  of  the  state  did  not  begin  unt;l  we  reached 
the  capital. 

The  governor  very  kindly  gave  us  the  use  of  the 
government  theater  for  our  services,  and  honored  us 
with  his  presence;  we  doubt  if  we  had  a  more  in- 
terested person  present.  He  talked  at  length  after 
the  service,  expressing  his  desires  for  his  people  and 
the  Eepublic  he  loves. 

In  this  place  we  found  some  interested,  and  in 
fact  a  few  who,  through  the  work  of  a  native  broth- 
er, had  professed  to  accept  Christ.  After  two 
nights  in  Salama  we  decided  to  push  west  for  thirty- 
five  or  forty  miles  across  two  mountains.  Our  start 
was  rather  late,  and  we  had  the  journey  to  make 
after  10  a.  m.  Three  of  our  party  arrived  about 
7:30  p.  m.,  the  other  two  about  9  p.  m.,  after  a 
long  ride  through  unknown  bushes. 

This  was  Cubulca,  a  place  of  considerable  im- 
portance, with  a  few  thousand  people.  Our  visit 
occurred  on  New  Year's  eve,  and  everything  was 
hilarious.  Three  men  had  arranged  for  our  coming. 
These  brethren  gave  every  evidence  of  enjoying  a 


o 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.       59 

good  walk  with  their  Master.  One  of  them  is  the 
tailor  who  was  led  to  Christ  through  reading  the 
Gospel  of  Luke.  They  had  rented  and  seated  a 
large  dirt-floored  room  where  we  held  the  service. 
Next  door  to  us  a  Roman  family  had  a  dance  all 
night  in  their  saloon,  where  they  had  an  image  of 
Christ.  About  two  doors  on  the  other  side  of  us  we 
had  another  dance.  These  were  two  out  of  seven 
we  counted  that  ran  all  night.  At  daylight  the  next 
morning  we  could  see  wives  leading  their  drunken 
husbands  home;  husbands  leading  their  wives, 
children  their  parents,  and  what  seemed  still  worse, 
parents  were  leading  their  drunk  children  eight  to 
fourteen  years  old. 

In  our  service  the  attention  was  good ;  many  heard 
the  Word,  and  early  the  next  morning  while  we  were 
dressing  there  came  a  poor  old  drunken  Romanist  to 
ask  more  light  on  the  Bible  teaching  of  salvation. 

After  the  crowd  had  dispersed  our  friends  carried 
in  three  cots  and  two  of  our  party  turned  seats  to- 
gether, so  we  were  all  in  bed  in  a  short  time.  This 
place  where  we  held  the  service  can  be  rented  regu- 
larly for  less  than  $1  per  month,  but  there  is  no 
missionary  to  occupy  it. 

Our  breakfast  next  morning,  where  we  ate  and 
what  we  had  is  a  profound  secret.  We  had  very 
little  rest  and  less  sleep  during  the  night  on  account 
of  the  screams  and  cries  of  the  drunken  and  fighting 
Indians.  At  midnight  a  very  large  procession  led 
by  torches  on  long  poles,  went  out  to  bring  in  the 


60  ON  MULEIBAOK 

new  city  officials  to  take  the  place  of  those  who 
were  at  that  hour  retiring  from  service.  We  bought 
one  meal  from  one  of  the  retiring  officials  and  he 
expressed  great  interest  in  the  Bible  and  its  teach- 
ings. 

Leaving  Cubulca  Bro.  Butler  fell  in  with  a  na- 
tive boy  17  or  18  years  old,  who  walked  .as  fast  as 
we  rode.  As  Bro.  Butler  talked  to  him  about  the 
advantages  of  knowing  how  to  read,  having  an  edu- 
cation, and  giving  his  heart  to  God,  he  said  he  did 
hope  the  way  would  open  for  him  to  do  it.  He 
finally  reached  his  home,  a  little  trash  hut  on  the 
bank  of  the  river  a  short  distance  out  of  the  city; 
and  there  we  left  him  in  ignorance  and  sin. 

On  the  way  to  Eavinal  there  was  nothing  of  spe- 
cial importance.  Arriving  rather  late  we  hurried 
at  once  to  the  government  theater  where  the  Lord 
blessed  the  service.  Arising  again  at  4  a.  m.  next 
morning  we  were  soon  in  the  saddle  and  off  for  a 
long  journey  over  high  and  steep  mountains.  At 
2  p.  m.  we  called  at  a  native  home  and  they  con- 
sented to  furnish  us  some  "frijoles  and  tortellas." 
Our  spread  was  prepared  for  us  on  the  dirt  floor  of 
the  porch  where  we  sat  on  the  ground  and  ate  with- 
out "table  tools."  We  soon  found  they  knew  noth- 
ing of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  plan  of  salvation.  One 
of  the  family,  who  had  neared  the  four-score  mile- 
stone, declared  he  knew  nothing  about  how  to  get 
to  heaven. 

In  ascending  the  mountain  we  had  to  turn  our 


THEOUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.      61 

liorses  loose  and  drive  them  while  we  walked  for 
over  an  hour  right  up  the  steeps.  As  we  turned 
down  the  other  side  the  writer  discovered  that  a 
trouble  he  is  having  with  circulation  in  his  limbs 
made  it  necessary  for  him  to  get  off  and  walk  down 
also. 

Passing  through  San  Meguil  Chica  we  reached 
Salama  in  time  for  dinner,  then  journeyed  on  to 
San  Jeronemo.  We  passed  through  acres  of  terri- 
tory with  walls  around  it  which  was  once  watered 
by  great  aqueducts  and  owned  by  the  monks,  but  all 
is  decay  and  ruin  now.  Tyranny,  the  desire  t) 
maintain  ignorance,  and  the  covetous  spirit  have  all 
been  reaping  what  they  eowed. 

After  a  service  at  San  Jeronemo  arrangements 
were  made  for  government  mules  to  take  us  to  the 
railroad,  a  distance  of  about  forty  miles  through  the 
mountains.  Bro.  Butler,  who  had  been  with  us 
since  we  landed  in  Port  Barrios  on  November  IG, 
took  our  four  horses  and  returned  to  Coban.  After 
an  affectionate  good-bye  we  separated,  he  to  climb 
one  mountain,  we  another,  going  in  opposite  direc- 
tions. 

We  asked  ithe  government  for  three  mules  to  ride 
and  one  to  pack  our  baggage;  but  they  said  we 
could  have  the  three  to  ride,  and  they  would  give 
us  an  Indian  to  carry  our  things.  The  Indian  was 
a  soldier  and  got  nothing  personally  from  them  for 
what  he  did,  though  he  carried  a  heavy  load  on  his 
back  for  forty  or  fifty    miles    right    through    the 


&2  ON  MULEBACK 

mountains.  He  kept  right  up  with  us  though  we 
pushed  our  mules  at  a  good  gait.  We  took  great 
pleasure  in  giving  him  his  meals,  which  we  were 
not  expected  to  do,  and  at  the  end  of  the  journey 
gave  him  money  for  his  personal  use. 

The  last  day  of  the  journey  just  after  daylight 
we  passed  through  a  good  sized  village  where  there 
was  a  family  of  believers.  The  man  and  his  wife 
•came  to  the  gate  with  an  affectionate  greeting  and 
begged  us  to  stop  and  have  breakfast,  or  at  least 
wait  for  them  to  bring  up  the  cow  and  get  us  a 
glass  of  milk.  As  we  started  on  the  man  assured 
us  that  they  and  all  they  had  was  at  our  service  for 
the  Lord. 

We  arrived  at  El  Eancho  about  9  a.  m.  where  we 
took  the  train  and  traveled  thirty-nine  miles  by  rail 
as  second  class  passengers  to  Zacapa,  where  we  took 
other  horses  to  continue  our  journey  to  Chiquimula 
to  hold  the  camp  meeting  for  the  Friends  Church. 
Simeon,  one  of  our  native  Indian  workers,  has  ac- 
companied us  on  foot  and  is  going  to  the  camp  also. 
He  has  come  160  miles,  having  traveled  120  of  it 
on  foot. 

At  the  depot  in  Zacapa  Bro.  Conway  Anderson, 
a  missionary,  met  us.  We  had  expected  Bros.  Jack- 
son and  Dunkum,  but  heard  Bro.  Dunkum  was  in 
bed  with  fever,  and  Bro.  Jackson  had  just  had  a 
siege  of  it.  Through  all  they  are  keeping  their 
spirits  up,  and  their  faith  in  God.  No  one  but  the 
missionary  knows  the  trials,  tet=itings  and  disap- 
pointments of  a  missionary.     God  bless  them  all. 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.       G3 
CHAPTER  XV. 

ONE  GOSPEL." 

Touching  incidents  illustrating  the  profit  of  scat- 
tering the  word  of  God  in  print  are  continually  be- 
fore the  writer.  One  of  our  native  preachers  in 
Guatemala,  C.  A.,  called  on  a  tailor  who,  of  course, 
was  a  Romanist.  He  asked  the  tailor  to  buy  a 
copy  of  the  gospel  of  Luke,  which  he  was  selling  for 
three-fourths  of  a  cent.  The  man  was  entirely  in- 
different and  refused  to  pay  any  attention  to  the 
matter.  Before  leaving  the  place  Brother  Tito  gave 
him  the  copy  of  Luke's  gospel,  asking  him  to  read 
it,  which  the  man  would  not  promise  to  do;  but 
after  the  missionary  was  gone,  the  tailor  said,  "I 
am  going  to  see  what  thgit  is,  for  everybody  says  it 
is  a  lie." 

He  began  to  read  and  could  not  stop  until  he 
had  read  it  through.  He  then  sent  to  a  Christian 
in  the  town  for  the  Gospel  of  Matthew,  but  the  man 
knowing  the  tailor's  reputation,  refused  to  send  it 
to  him.  He  sent  for  it  a  second  and  a  third  timo, 
and  finally  went  in  person.  After  reading  it  he 
bought  the  entire  Testament  and  professed  to  get 
saved.  After  a  few  weeks  he  got  drunk.  He  then 
prayed  harder  than  ever  and  seemed  to  really  find 
God.  When  the  native  preacher  returned  the  man 
bore  a  good  testimony,  and  asked  the  people  pub- 


CA.  ON  MULEBACK 

licly  whether  or  not  he  was  living  a  Christian  life. 
This  is  one  of  many  like  incidents  we  could  give  as 
a  testimony  to  the  profit  of  spreading  the  printed 
Word. 

During  the  last  eight  days  we  have  entered  eight 
towns  where,  so  far  as  we  were  able  to  learn,  there 
had  never  been  a  Christian  service,  and  if  there  had 
been  a  copy  of  God's  word  sold  or  given  away  we 
did  not  hear  of  it.  In  connection  with  our  services 
we  urged  the  people  to  buy  a  Testament  or  Gospel : 
the  latter  we  sold  for  one  "real,"  which  is  five- 
eighths  of  a  cent.  We  prefer  selling  them  because 
they  value  it  much  higher  if  they  pay  for  it. 

They  do  not  only  buy  them  but  read  them.  At 
Sarstoon,  upon  the  Eiver  Sarstoon,  we  only  had 
thirty  minutes  to  stay,  and  just  before  leaving  Bro. 
Butler  went  to  one  side  of  the  town  to  buy  some 
bread.  There  he  found  a  man  sitting  in  front  of 
his  hut  reading  the  Testament  he  had  bought  only 
ten  or  fifteen  minutes  before. 

When  we  have  heard  workers  from  these  fields 
speak  of  how  many  portions  of  scriptures  they  had 
sold  in  a  day  we  have  been  inclined  to  criticise ;  but 
now  that  we  have  learned  what  they  knew,  we  can 
say  that  no  greater  work  can  be  accomplished  in 
these  Eoman  countries  than  to  scatter  the  printed 
Word.  Money  invested  in  cheap  Testaments,  and 
in  the  support  of  a  worker  to  travel  about  holding 
services  and  selling  the  Word,  will  tell  in  eternity. 

In  addition  to  Bibles,  Testaments  and  Gospels, 


Some  who  Walked  over  loo   Miles  to 
Hear  The  Gospel. 


TTTEOUGII   CENTRAL  z\MEETCA.       05 

the  natives  beg  for  books  and  tracts  in  their  own 
language.  They  could  not  pay  the  full  price,  l)ut 
would  gladly  pay  some  price  if  they  bad  the  oppor- 
tunity. Nine-tenths  of  theee  deluded  people  are  in 
this  present  plight  because  they  have  had  Roman 
priests  do  their  tliinling  for  them  for  the  past  four 
hundred  years.  They  are  now  tired  of  it  and  want 
liberty.  The  hope  of  this  people  and  the  church  of 
Jesus  Christ  in  their  midst  is  the  spread  of  the  Bi- 
ble and  Bible  literature  to  open  their  eyes,  and  then 
they  cannot  remain  true  to  Rome. 


fiC)  ON  MULEBACK 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

STRANGERS^  IN  A  STRANGE  LAND,  AMONG  A  STRANGE 
PEOPLE,  WITH  A  STRANGE  TONGUE. 

Americans  who  have  always  been  surrounded  by 
English  speaking  people,  have  very  little  idea  what 
it  means  to  be  among  a  people  whose  language  they 
do  not  know,  and  whose  customs  are  strange.  For 
instance,  among  Spanish  speaking  people,  if  you 
motion  with  the  hand  as  we  Americans  do  when  we 
want  some  one  to  come  to  us,  it  means  "go,"  "be- 
gone," or  "go  on."  While  if  you  want  the  person 
to  come  to  you,  it  is  necessary  to  wave  back  at  them 
as  we  do  when  we  want  a  person  to  go.  The  same 
is  true  of  the  motion  of  the  head. 

The  writer  and  Brother  James  V.  Eeid  had  an 
experience  on  the  night  of  December  31,  the  last 
night  of  the  old  year.  Our  party  consisting  of  five 
men,  left  Salama,  the  capital  of  Baja  Vera  Paz, 
for  another  city  thirty-ifive  miles  distant,  across  two 
mountains.  We  planned  to  reach  the  pilace  at  7  :30 
p.  m.  and  had  sent  word  they  should  arrange  for  a 
service  as  there  were  two  believers  in  the  place. 

Brother  Eeid  and  the  writer  got  ahead  in  the 
journey  after  dinner  and  pushed  on,  even  when 
dark  had  overtaken  us.  Near  7 :30  we  saw  signs  of 
a  village  or  town,  but  was  it  Cubulca?  Halting  at 
an  Indian  hut  .we  called  and  called.  We  thought 
we  knew  a  few  words  of  the  language,  so  tried  to 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.       07 

say,  "Excuse  me,  Senor;  excuse  me,  Senora,"  Some 
one  finally  appeared  at  the  front  with  a  pine  torch, 
and  we  asked  what  we  hoped  was,  "Is  this  the  road 
to  Cubulca  ?"  Three  Indian  woaien  having  marched 
out,  we  repeated  our  question,  to  which  they  re- 
plied with  great  signs  and  lying  wonders,  motion- 
ing every  part  of  the  compass,  even  including  heav- 
enly directions  and  the  other  also.  We  thought 
they  finished  by  pointing  on  up  the  road,  and  feel- 
ing somewhat  confident,  but  still  with  many  mis- 
givings, we  spurred  up  and  galloped  off.  Passing 
some  pedestrians  we  tried  the  same  question  on 
them  and  received  the  same  answer,  or  at  least  an 
answer  that  looked  the  same.  In  a  little  while  we 
called  at  another  Indian  hut  and  exhausted  our  vo- 
cabulary on  them,  hoping  we  had  asked  correctly, 
but  we  have  both  decided  to  go  down  to  the  silent 
tomb  (if  He  delays  His  coming)  not  knowing  Just 
what  we  asked,  or  exactly  what  reply  we  received. 

A  little  further  on  Brother  Reid  asked  an  old  In- 
dian the  road  and  how  far  it  was  to  Cubulca,  in 
great  glee  he  replied,  "Yes,  yes."  We  next  met  n 
drunken  man  riding  a  sober  horse,  while  his  wife-or 
a  woman  to  whom  he  should  have  been  married — 
walked  with  a  large  child  on  her  back.  We  asked 
this  gentleman  of  leisure,  "Is  this  the  road  to  Cu- 
bulca?" He  also  seemed  to  encourage  us,  so  we 
pushed  on. 

Our  road,  which  was  once  a  cart  road,  had  degen- 
erated into  a  bridle  trail,  which  finally  led  us  to 


68  ON  MULEBACK 

the  bank  of  a  mountain  stream,  along  which  we 
traveled  peacefnlly  until  the  little  gray  steed  of  the 
writer  saw  himself,  in  the  water,  and  not  being 
pleased  with  the  likeness  traveled  (side  ways)  up 
into  a  patch  of  thorns.  As  a  result  we  had  to  have 
the  knife  (a  pocket  one)  applied  the  next  morning 
to  remove  "the  thorn  in  the  flesh."  After  dis- 
mounting we  tried  to  coax,  persuade  and  uje  corpo- 
ral punishment,  but  found  nothing  effective;  t-o 
as  a  'last  resort  we  took  position  on  the  upper  side 
of  the  bank  and  with  all  our  strength  pushed  our 
animal  into  the  path  again,  where  he  discovered 
that  the  trouble  was  not  real,  but  imaginary,  and 
all  caused  by  himself.  At  last  our  path  lost  itself 
in  the  bed  of  the  stream  which  we  followed  as  long 
as  there  was  footing  for  the  animals. 

The  writer  said,  "Eeid,  this  will  never  take  us 
to  Cubulca."  He  replied,  "What  do  you  suppose 
the  folks  at  home  would  say  ?"  The  reader  will  un- 
derstand this  was  only  a. small  part  of  the  conver- 
sation we  held,  for  after  halting — ^when  our  animals 
refused  to  go  further — we  dismounted  there  in  a 
wilderness  of  rocks  and  brush  at  the  base  of  a  moun- 
tain— and  had  conversations  not  lawful  to  mention. 

After  our  animals  had  refused  to  respond  further 
to  our  urgent  persuadings,  we  dismounted  and 
looked  ahead  and  found  we  were  ready  to  plunge 
over  some  rocks  which  would  have  meant  work  for 
a  hospita'l.  We  held  council  between  ourselves  and 
decided  if  that  was  Cubulca  it  was  time  to  leave, 


THEOU'GH   CENTRAL  AMEEICA.       G9 

and  if  it  was  not  Cubulca  it  was  time  to  find  the 
town.  On  taking  observations  we  found  that  wliile 
we  had  traveled  al;l  evening  facing  the  evening  star, 
we  were  now  going  with  our  backs  to  it,  until  we 
had  ceased  going  at  all. 

After  retracing  our  steps  until  w^e  found  the 
trail  again,  the  writer  said,  "Reid,  I  hadn't  men- 
tioned it,  but  the  thing  that  pried  my  hat  up  and 
made  me  feel  funny  was  the  fact  that  there  are  all 
kinds  of  wild  animals  in  this  region."  Reid  re- 
plied, "Well,  don't  say  anything  about  it  for  a  little 
while,  until  we  get  out  of  here."  We  did  not  think 
seriously  until  we  were  talking  the  next  day  and 
were  told  that  a  large  bear  had  even  ventured  into 
town  a  few  days  before. 

After  returning  to  the  point  where  we  first  asked 
the  direction  we  found  that  we  were  even  in  the 
edge  of  Cubulca,  and  did  not  know  it.  After  reach- 
ing the  town  the  next  question  was  to  find  the  place 
where  the  service  was  to  be  held,  for  we  did  not 
know  where  to  stop.  The  whole  town  was  in  a  hila- 
rious uproar  of  music,  daijcing  and  celebration,  and 
•we  were  quite  at  a  loss  to  'find  our  brethren.  But 
after  wending  our  way  through  one  street  and  an- 
other, again  putting  to  the  test  our  Spanish  vocab- 
ulary, we  were  finally  directed  to  where  the  "Pro- 
testants were  showing  their  vistas,"  and  found  the 
brethren  in  the  midst  of  the  service.  We  retired 
that  night  somewhat  weary  from  our  extended  ride, 
but  the  richer  in  experience  and  illustrations. 


70  ON  MULEBACK 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

MY  LAST  NIGHT. 

After  spending  several  days  and  nights  in  the 
state  of  Baja  Vera  Paz  we  left  early  one  morning 
for  the  last  town  we  were  to  visit.  Ten  miles 
brought  us  to  the  abrupt  beginning  of  a  high  and 
steep  mountain.  Our  mules  were  large,  fresh  gov- 
ernment mules,  and  well  able  for  the  trip.  The 
plain  below  was  hot  and  dry,  but  we  had  not 
climbed  more  than  thirty  minutes  before  we  wanted 
our  coats,  and  in  a  little  while  our  rain  coats  and 
finally  umbrellas,  for  we  were  right  in  the  clouds, 
where  the  wind  was  heavy  and  uncomfortably  cool. 
From  the  heights  we  could  look  down  where  vve 
were  a  short  time  before  and  see  a  hot  tropical  sun 
scorching  all  vegetation. 

A  little  after  12  o'clock  we  halted  in  front  of 
two  Indian  huts  and  asked  for  some  food.  The 
huts,  standing  side  by  side,  we  cannot  describe  suf- 
ficiently to  give  the  reader  a  good  idea  of  them.  A 
few  litle  poles  were  used  for  sides.  One  point  in 
favor  of  the  place  was  fresh  air.  The  floors  were 
mother  earth.  The  huts  were  about  8x10  feet,  and 
occupied  by  twelve  Indians.  When  we  began  eat- 
ing one  of  the  brethren  said  the  dirt  was  clean,  so 
if  that  be  decided  upon  we  need  not  fear.  The 
women  and  children  were  dressed  for  the  hottest 


THROUGH   CENTEAL  AMERICA.       71 

weather,  provided  they  stayed  in  the  shade.  Our 
dinner  was  principally  "frijoles  and  tortellas,"  i.  e., 
black  beans  and  corn  cakes,  made  of  crashed  corn 
with  no  other  ingredient  but  water.  Having  no 
knife,  fork  or  spoon  we  found  our  fingers  conven- 
ient. After  brashing  away  bugs,  etc.,  and  fighting 
off  a  bunch  of  dogs,  we  ate  a  much  desired  dinner 
and  told  the  people  about  Jesus,  bade  them 
good-bye  and  left  one  of  our  party  reading  the  Tes- 
tament to  them.  He  sold  them  a  Testament  and 
two  Gospels.  We  then  rode  off  trusting  we  might 
have  as  good  for  supper — but  we  did  not,  and  it  \'. 
best  not  to  undertake  a  description. 

The  afternoon  carried  us  down  the  valley  and 
along  near  the  foot  of  a  mountain.  We  passed 
through  several  villages  of  20  to  40  huts,  but  no 
missionary  or  gospel.  It  was  about  night  when  we 
rode  into  Morazon,  our  last  town  in  the  state.  Af- 
ter finding  our  lodging  place  we  dismounted,  walked 
into  the  dirt-floored  porch,  pushed  our  way  through 
a  bunch  of  dogs  and  around  a  large  hog  eating  Jn 
the  middle  of  the  floor.  We  were  disappointed  to 
find  that  all  the  citv  officials  were  out  of  town  on  a 
fishing  trip  and  we  could  not  arrange  for  a  public 
building  that  night.  But  our  landlady  gladly  of- 
fered us  her  largest  room,  which  did  the  four- fold 
work  of  office,  sitting-room,  bedroom  and  bar-room. 
We  stretched  the  screen  in  one  end  and  began  the 
service.  The  people  came  and  the  service  was  in- 
deed a  success.     At  the  close  the  mayor  who  had 


72  ON  MULEBACK 

returned,  came  forward  and  expressed  his  regrets  at 
not  being  there  early  enough  to  open  a  public  build- 
ing, and  said,  "You  are  preaching  my  religion  and 
this  town  is  at  your  service.  We  are  glad  to  have 
you  help  us  out  of  this  ignorance  and  darkness." 
With  many  words  he  assured  us  of  his  hearty  sym- 
pathy, begging  us  to  return. 

We  slept  there  on  cots  made  of  strings  stretched 
across  wooden  frames,  with  a  palm  mat  on  each  one. 
Just  before  4  o'clock  next  morning  we  arose,  ate 
some  "frijoles  and  tortellas"  and  were  in  the  saddle 
at  5  a.  m.  ready  for  a  fifteen  mile  ride  to  catch  a 
train. 

At  the  close  of  a:ll  such  services  they  begged  for 
tracts  and  papers,  bought  testaments  and  gospels, 
and  asked  for  more  light  on  the  Bible.  The  reader 
will  agree  with  us  that  such  people  should  not  be 
wholly  neglected,  but  who  is  to  go,  or  who  will  send 
those  who  are  willing  to  go?  After  they  are  there 
who  will  pray  for  tliem? 


THEOUGH   CENTEAL  AMEEICA.       73 


CHAPTEE  XVIII. 

THE   FRIENDS   CAMP. 

Before  leaving  the  states  it  had  been  planned  for 
us  to  attend  the  annual  conference  and  camp  meet- 
ing of  the  Friends  Mission  in  Chiquimula,  Guate- 
mala. The  date  arranged  for  was  Januaiy  7  to  13. 
We  had  to  travel  on  horseback  from  the  northern 
part  of  the  country  to  a  point  on  the  little  railroad. 
Thence  thirty-nine  miles  by  rail  as  second  class  pas- 
sengers; then  twenty-five  miles  again  in  the  saddle. 
We  arose  at  2  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  make  ready 
for  this  last  stretch  of  the  trip,  and  arrived  about 
8  a.  m.  The  battle  opened  at  once.  This  was 
their  regular  annual  meeting  and  well  attended  fron 
various  parts  of  Central  America. 

We  counted  ten  persons  who  came  one  hundred 
miles  or  more,  and  so  far  as  we  were  able  to  learn 
only  one  of  them  rode.  He  came  on  a  mule.  In 
the  absence  of  Miss  Smith,  the  Superintendent,  who 
was  in  the  United  Statet?  on  account  of  her  healtli, 
Miss  Burke  was  in  charge  of  the  work.  Her  rare 
ability  to  manage  and  direct  the  work  in  general 
and  the  camp  in  particular,  was  indeed  noticeable. 
The  services  were  at  8  :30  a.  m.,  2  :30  and  7  p.  m. 

'Practically  all  the  services  were  marked  with  deep 
conviction  and  seekers  at  the  altar.  Those  of  our 
readers  who  have  never  been  embarrassed  by  trying 


74  ON  MULEBACK 

to  preach  with  an  interpreter  can  not  sympathize 
with  one  whose  heart  is  fired  with  a  message  and 
sees  a  hungry  hearted  multitude,  eager  for  the  mes- 
sage, but  must  give  a  sentence,  and  then  wait  for 
another  man  to  repeat  it.  This  was  our  lot  in  the 
greater  part  of  our  work  in  Central  America.  But 
Be  was  pleased  to  bless  the  Word  even  when  it 
went  in  this  second-handed  way  to  the  hearer. 

As  we  watched  those  bare-footed  people  press 
their  way  to  the  altar  after  they  had  tramped 
through  the  mountains  fifty  or  a  hundred  miles, 
stopping  by  the  roadside  at  night,  our  hearts  would 
melt;  and  tears  claimed  a  place  when  big  strong 
Indians  would  kneel  at  the  altar  and  literally  bel- 
low as  they  cried  for  God  to  save  them  from  their 
sins. 

The  Word  did  indeed  prove  a  "savor  of  life." 

Many  who  attended  the  meeting  slept  on  the 
floor  or  on  benches.  One  woman  with  two  little 
giris,  one  not  more  than  seven  years  old,  walked 
about  one  hundred  miles  and  slept  by  the  roadside 
at  nights.  We  know  her  well,  and  have  been  in 
her  home.  In  fact  the  idol  she  worshipped  we  are 
carrying  with  us  now.  She  and  the  little  girl  were 
at  the  altar  a  few  hours  after  they  arrived,  and 
when  the  conference  was  over  they  arranged  for 
work  so  they  could  stay  for  a  while  to  ''learn  the 
gospel." 

Little  girls  with  divine  conviction  for  sin  came 
to  the  altar  and  ofttimes  prayed  until  they  could 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.       75 

be  heard  many  blocks  away.  The  part  of  the  work 
that  appealed  to  the  writer  was  that  the  people 
really  prayed  through  to  victory. 

The  twelve  Americans  present  seemed  to  have 
the  best  time  of  all.  How  they  did  drink  down  the 
messages  and  tell  of  the  great  need  of  missionary 
evangelism. 

The  reader  must  understand  that  work  in  Roman 
Catholic  countries  is  slow.  This  great  camp  was 
the  result  of  many  years  of  hard  aiid  faithful  toil 
on  the  part  of  the  missionaries  in  charge.  For 
them  to  see  twenty-five  to  seventy-five  people  at  the 
altar  at  one  time  was  to  see  the  fruit  of  their  faith- 
ful sowing  in  the  past. 

The  last  day  of  the  meeting  we  began  the  morn- 
ing service  at  8  a.  m.  and  it  lasted  until  1 :30  p.  m. 
We  counted  nearly  a  hundred  at  the  altar  in  this 
service.  There  were  children  and  white  headed 
men  and  women.  Most  of  them  were  bare  footed 
and  wearing  few  clothes;  but  He,  who  is  no  re- 
specter of  persons,  heard  their  cries. 

The  writer  has  never  yet  listened  to  such  clear, 
spontaneous  testimonies.  After  the  altar  t=ervice 
Avould  continue  for  a  time  the  voluntary  cries  for 
mercy  would  begin  to  change  into  ringing  testimo- 
nies, and  these  were  also  voluntary,  for  tliey  did 
not  have  to  be  told  when  they  were  through.  An 
Indian  would  rise  to  his  feet  and,  facing  the  con- 
gregation, with  his  hand  up  would  begin  to  preach. 
Oh,  what  sermons!     Then  a  Spaniard  or  a  child 


76  ON  MULEBACK 

would  follow.  No  one  was  told  to  do  it;  oh  no,  it 
wasn't  necessary ;  they  wept  if  they  did  not  get  the 
privilege.  At  one  service  a  bo}',  possibly  twelve  or 
thirteen  years  of  age,  stood  waiting  for  his  turn, 
until  it  looked  as  though  the  service  would  close 
before  he  could  tell  how  Jesus  had  saved  him  from 
sin.  Fearing  he  had  lost  his  opportunity  to  testify, 
he  began  to  weep  bitterly.  Indeed  it  seemed  that 
if  these  could  not  get  to  speak,  the  stones 
would  cry  out  and  praise  God. 

Some  of  the  children  are  from  various  parts  of 
the  republic,  but  are  there  in  school. 

The  Americans  present  agreed  that  a  conference 
in  the  states  like  this  one  would  be  counted  the 
greatest  camp  in  the  whole  country.  The  tired, 
over-worked  missionaries  declared  they  had  received 
as  much,  or  more,  out  of  that  meeting  than  the  na- 
tives. Why  not  add  this  country  to  the  evangelistic 
field  of  the  United  States? 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.       77 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

A  NOON  MEETING. 

In  arranofinof  our  muleback  tour  of  Honduras, 
Salvador  and  Guatemala,  it  was  found  we  must 
pass  through  San  Alena,  a  small  town  six  or  eight 
miles  from  our  starting  point. 

The  "believers"  at  San  xAlena  insisted  on  a  ser- 
vice. We  arrived  about  10  a.  m.  and  found  many 
Indians  and  "Ladinos"  gathered  for  the  service. 
They  had  prepared  dinner  for  us  which  we  ate  at 
once.  True,  the  meal  served  would  not  have  been 
very  acceptable  in  a  fashionable  home  in  America, 
and  the  style  in  which  it  was  served  would  hardly 
do  justice  to  the  "Astor  House"  in  Xew  York;  but 
for  tired  missionaries  with  a  dozen  mountains  and 
a  few  hundred  miles  of  rough,  hot  traveling  before 
them,  it  was  indeed  a  treat. 

Upon  our  arrival  we  'first  unsaddled  our  mules 
and,  as  usual,  proceed  to  pull  off  our  leggings  and 
shoes,  stretched  out  flat  on  our  backs  to  rest,  and 
if  possible,  get  a  few  moments  of  sleep,  for  we  gen- 
erally made  fifty  miles  or  more  every  day,  and  ^o 
do  this  we  had  to  arise  from  2  to  4  o'clock  in  the 
morning. 

Our  "noon  nap"  was  usually  under  a  tree  by  the 
roadside,  or  on  a  pile  of  corn ;  perhaps  in  some  na- 
tive bed — no  springs,  mattress  or  bedding,  but  we 


78  ON  MULEBACK 

always  tried  to  find  time  to  take  off  the  saddles  and 
let  the  mules  roll  in  the  dirt  while  we  lay  still,  as 
we  did  not  feel  like  rolling. 

After  our  rest  and  dinner,  we  proceeded  with 
the  service.  The  dress  of  the  people  in  the  congre- 
gation we  will  not  describe.  Of  course,  shoes  are 
rare  and  odd.  Many  of  the  women  were  dressed 
much  "up  to  date."  We  would  not  accuse  these 
dear  Indians  of  copying  after  American  women,  but 
we  do  believe  that  if  our  own  women  could  see  how 
much  alike  the  two  ends  of  society  are  dressed,  the 
so-called  upper  end  would  quit  dressing  from  choice 
like  the  lower  end  of  society  dress  from  necessity. 

As  we  preached,  they  wept  and  shouted.  The 
presence  of  the  Lord  was  very  manifest.  At  the 
close  of  the  meeting  we  had  a  great  time  saying 
good-bye.  Oh,  how  they  cling  to  those  who  carry 
them  the  gospel !  We  mounted  and  rode  off  at  a 
pretty  good  gallop,  but  found  some  were  in  front  of 
us  and  others  behind,  but  catching  up.  We  in- 
quired if  they  lived  up  that  way,  and  they  said,  "Oh, 
no,  we  are  going  with  you  to  Zagualtipeca  for  the 
night  service."  But  wdiat  of  that,  it  is  only  a  littie 
afternoon  stroll  of  fifteen  or  eighteen  miles;  what 
do  they  care  for  that  ? 

Bare-footed  women  and  children  kept  in  front 
of  us;  one  little  boy  not  more  than  iive  years  old, 
wearing  a  "shirt"  and  nothing  else,  would  at  times 
get  so  far  ahead  we  could  not  see  him.  Were  they 
tired?     The  writer  riding  a  good  mule  was  tired, 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.       79 

but  with  eagerness  they  prayed  and  shouted  through 
the  niglit  seniee,  and  then  lay  down  on  the  stone 
floor  to  sleep.  Others  rode  over  and  arose  with  us 
the  next  morning  at  2  o'clock. 

After  we  were  all  in  the  saddle  we  told  them 
good-bye,  and  as  they  went  back  to  their  homes  wo 
pressed  up  the  side  of  a  mountain  in  the  dark.  For 
generations  their  fathers  have  been  taught  that  relig- 
ion consists  of  hard  pilgrimages,  and  when  they  are 
saved  they  gladly  endure  hardness  like  good  soldiers 
and  do  not  say  anything  about  it. 

We  believe  the  reader,  like  the  writer,  would  en- 
joy helping  those  who,  when  they  are  saved,  count 
it  a  privilege  to  suffer  for  Him.  WTiile  writing  in 
our  stopping  place  one  day  we  heard  one  of  our  In- 
dian boys  praying  who  had  tramped  over  three  hun- 
dred miles  with  a  pack  on  his  back;  he  did  it  all 
for  Jesus,  and  when  I  wanted  to  pay  him  he  threw 
up  his  hand  and  said,  "No,  no,  it  was  all  for  Dios- 
God." 

The  man  who  supports  a  missionary  for  one  year 
and  the  missionary  succeeds  during  the  year  in 
liringing  to  Christ  one  such  soul,  has  certainly  in- 
vested monev  to  a  good  advantage. 


80  ON  MULEBxVCK 

•CHAPTER  XX. 

ORDERED  AWAY  IN  TWENTY-FOUR  HOURS. 

Ocotapeca,  Honduras,  holds  the  record  for  fanati- 
cism. We  learned  through  the  missionaries  in  Gua- 
temala that  they  had  arrested  and  locked  up  work- 
ers in  the  past,  one  colporteur  of  the  American  Bi- 
ble Society  having  been  repeatedly  locked  up.  Fear- 
ing trouble  on  our  arrival  we  wanted  to  get  in  early, 
so  we  left  Esquipulas  at  3:30  a.  m.  We  reached 
the  Honduras  border  at  8,  but  had  many  mountain 
miles  ahead  of  us.  To  arise  at  2  or  2  :30  a.  m., 
after  using  coat  and  trousers  for  mattress  and 
springs,  then  eat  out  of  gourds  and  travel  fifty 
miles  over  mountains,  makes  one  feel  much  like 
praying  or  fainting.     We  did  the  former. 

Upon  our  arrival  in  Ocotapeca  we  inquired  for 
a  man  of  whom  we  had  heard  and  had  reason  to 
think  was  a  "T^eliever."  Though  we  were  on  his 
street  and  near  his  house,  no  one  could  tell  us  where 
he  lived.  We  asked  one  lady  and  she  said  she  did, 
but  asked  with  the  next  breath,  "Do  you  believe 
with  him;  are  you  of  his  following?"  When  we 
answered  in  the  affirmative  she  said  at  once  she  did 
not  know  the  man. 

Finally  an  officer  told  us  to  go  to  the  Chief  of 
Police  at  once.  Of  course  we  obeyed  orders  and  on 
our  arrival  he  asked  wliere  we  were  from,  where  we 
were  going,  how  long  we  would  stay,  etc.     We  told 


Come  Over — Help  Us. 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.      81 

him  who  we  were,  and  what  we  had  come  for,  and 
if  he  would  come  up  to  the  service  that  night  he 
could  see  for  himself.  After  taking  our  names  he 
straightened  up  and  said,  "I  will  give  you  twenty- 
four  hours  to  get  out  of  town,  and  if  you  are  not  out 
in  that  time  I  will  put  you  under  arrest."  We  told 
him  we  expected  to  behave  ourselves  and  we  would 
stay  until  we  got  ready  to  go. 

We  had  in  mind  all  the  while  the  two  American 
men  who  were  killed  in  Honduras  a  few  weeks  be- 
fore, and  we  remembered  also  that  the  United 
States  made  the  Honduras  government  pay  heavily 
for  it.  We  hoped  this  would  help  us  but  we  did  not 
know. 

We  found  a  place  where  we  could  stay  and  just 
at  night  an  officer  came  from  the  chief  and  said, 
"If  you  expect  to  have  service  tonight  you  must 
come  and  get  license  or  you  cannot  have  it."  Bro. 
Edwards,  our  interpreter,  ran  at  once  to  the  chief's 
oi^ce,  but  he  was  not  there.  He  then  went  to  the 
other  head  officer  and  he  was  not  in.  We  saw,  of 
course,  it  was  a  put  up  job  to  keep  us  from  having 
the  meeting.  AH  tlie  while  we  saw  three  priests 
going  to  and  fro,  keeping  a  close  eye  on  everything. 

Brother  Edwards  then  went  to  the  Governor  and 
told  him  what  word  we  had  received.  He  said, 
"Now,  Governor,  you  have  religious  liberty  in  your 
constitution  and  we  know  it.  They  are  trying  to 
force  us  not  to  have  a  service  but  we  are  going  to 
have  it." 


89  ON  MULEBAOK 

"Well,"  replied  the  Governor,  "you  can  go  on, 
but  you  cannot  sing."  What  they  wanted  was  to 
prevent  the  service  if  possible,  and  if  not,  to  fix  !t 
so  no  one  would  be  attracted. 

Brother  Edwards  replied,  "Well,  you  come  and 
see  if  we  don't  sing,  and  if  you  expect  trouble  you 
had  better  have  officers  there,  for  we  will  have  the 
meeting.  We  are  going  to  act  like  gentlemen,  and 
we  demand  that  you  treat  us  as  such." 

Eesults:  The  house  was  crowded  to  the  door; 
the  street  full,  and  they  listened  with  rapt  atten- 
tion. When  we  finished  many  came  to  us  and  beg- 
ged us  to  go  on,  and  have  another  service  before 
they  went  home.  We  heard  them  as  they  left  say- 
ing, "What  do  you  think  of  that?  The  Protest- 
ants do  believe  in  Jesus  and  in  God  both.  Well, 
I  didn't  know  that." 

We  found  thatHe  can  open  and  no  man  can  shut, 
and  indeed  it  proved  an  effectual  door.  All  we 
need  to  do  is  to  preach  the  truth,  scatter  Bibles  and 
Testaments,  and  the  Word  of  God  itself  is  the  worst 
enemy  Eoman  Catholicism  has. 

We  knew  it  would  not  do  to  leave  before  day- 
light, or  we  would  be  arrested.  One  of  our  party 
was  taken  off  of  his  horse  before  daylight  the  morn- 
ing previous  by  an  officer,  and  now  they  were  mad 
and  wanting  a  chance  to  cause  us  trouble.  Yet  we 
had  more  than  fifty  miles  for  that  day,  and  the 
worst  roads  we  had  seen.  Most  all  of  these  little 
towns  are  under  military  law  or  at  least  on  that 


THROUGH   CENTRAL   AMERICA.       83 

order,  and  if  one  walks  up  the  street  after  9  p.  m. 
or  before  5  a.  m.,  he  is  halted,  and  if  a  satisfactory 
explanation  is  not  given  for  being  out  at  that  hour 
he  is  locked  up.  The  writer  has  been  called  on  to 
halt  repeatedly,  but  would  reply  that  he  did  not  un- 
derstand Spanish  and  they  let  us  go  on  thinking 
we  did  not  know  better. 

Many  people  in  Ocotopet-a  begged  us  to  come  back 
and  remain  with  them ;  they  wanted  us  to  tell  where 
we  were  going  and  when  we  would  be  back  to  give 
them  more  of  the  gospel.  He  who  is  seeking  an 
open  door  can  find  one  here.  It  may  prove  a  jail 
door  soon,  but  they  want  the  gospel. 


84  ON  MULEBACK 


CHAPTEE  XXI. 

UNDEE  ARREST. 

As  the  Central  American  republics  are  very  small 
and  crowded  together  dlosely  care  must  be  taken. 
Since  a  large  per  cent  of  the  people  are  out  to  do 
wrong  they  naturally  mistrust  others,  believing 
them  to  be  dishonest  also.  We  had  pushed  our 
mules  all  day,  but  before  reaching  Metapan,  Salva- 
dor, we  saw  night  was  on  us,  so  we  applied  spurs 
to  the  tired  animals  and  went  at  a  gallop  until  we 
reached  the  place. 

As  we  made  a  quick  turn  in  the  road  we  found 
ourse^lves  in  the  street  leading  right  through  the 
little  city.  The  sun  was  setting  and  dark  already 
beginning  to  fall.  We  looked  ahead  and  there  stood 
an  armed  officer  who  stepped  out  in  the  street  and 
told  us  to  stop.  After  asking  questions  enough  to 
find  we  were  from  Honduras  he  said  he  must  take 
us  to  police  headquarters. 

Brother  Edwards  explained  that  we  were  going 
to  stop  over  night  and  go  right  on  the  next  morn- 
ing, but  we  had  to  go  with  him.  "Well,"  said  Ed- 
wards, pointing  to  the  writer,  "he  cannot  speak 
'Spanish ;  let  him  go  on  and  I  will  go  for  the  crowd." 
No,  not  one  could  escape ;  we  must  march  down  the 
street  under  his  personal  escort,  and  march  we  did. 
We  cannot  say  that  we  particularly  enjoyed  it,  but 


THEOUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.       85 

decided  to  go  on  and  let  him  have  his  way,  espe- 
cially since  we  could  not  help  ourselves. 

However,  we  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  fine  man 
as  Chief  of  Police,  and  he  turned  us  loose,  telling  us 
what  place  to  go  for  the  night.  We  rode  up  and 
made  a  contract  for  a  large  room  in  w^hich  we  were 
to  sleep  and  have  the  service  alone.  We  were  to 
get  our  meals  and  feed  for  the  mules  also. 

The  saddles  were  off,  and  w-e  were  shaving  when 
the  woman  of  the  house  came  to  the  door.  It  was 
evident  she  was  a  very  strong  Eomanist  for  we 
found  a  big  "saint"  in  one  room.  'She  had  no 
doubt  received  her  orders  from  the  priest,  for  she 
told  us  to  get  out  at  once,  as  she  did  not  want  to 
be  bothered  with  us. 

We  were  slow  to  accept  the  orders,  and  especially 
slow  to  execute  them.  She  called  out  the  second 
and  third  time,  telling  us  we  would  be  very  much 
trouble  to  her  and  to  get  right  out  at  once,  for  she 
did  not  want  us,  and  would  not  have  us  there. 

Well,  what  were  we  to  do?  The  officer  ordered 
us  to  go  there,  to  get  off  the  street,  and  now  she 
was  ordering  us  to  leave.  We  did  not  want  to  sleep 
out  in  the  fields,  and  moreover  we  wanted  to  hold 
a  service. 

Bro.  Edwards  stepped  to  the  door  with  the  lather 
on  one  side  of  his  face  and  the  other  side  shaven, 
and  said,  '^e  will  not  go.  The  chief  of  police  sent 
us  here,  and  we  made  a  contract  to  stay,  and  vve 
are  not  going."     "But  you  are  much   trouble  to 


86  ON  MULEBAOK 

me,"  she  replied.  "Yes,  and  you  are  much  trouble 
to  us,  and  we  are  not  going;  we  are  going  to  pay 
what  the  contract  calls  for  and  you  Just  dare  put  us 
out.  We  are  hungry  and  want  our  supper  so  we 
can  have  the  meeting." 

Again  the  God  of  battles  was  with  us  and  gave 
the  victory.  We  stayed  and  the  old  lady  invited  her 
friends  in,  and  we  had  a  great  service. 

Our  Indian  boys  and  the  native  preacher  were 
out  on  the  street  and  heard  them  talking  about  the 
meeting  after  it  closed.  They  were  telling  how 
surprised  they  were  to  find  what  the  Protestants  be- 
lieved, and  how  the  priests  had  lied  to  them  in  say- 
ing the  Protestants  did  not  believe  in  Christ  or  that 
Mary  was  a  virgin,  etc.  The  interest  was  so  great 
they  bought  all  the  Bibles  and  Testaments  we  had. 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.      87 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

IN  THE  HANDS  OF  EOBBKIIS. 

We  have  spoken  before  of  how  the  many  revolu- 
tions in  the  Central  American  countries  have  re- 
sulted in  the  land  being  infested  with  robbers.  The 
habit  practiced  in  most  parts  of  putting  up  a  cro^s 
where  a  man  has  been  killed  has  resulted  in  many 
road  sides  being  dotted  all  along  with  crosses,  the 
newer  ones  still  bearing  the  name  of  the  man  and 
the  date  he  was  murdered. 

The  farther  back  in  the  mountains  the  more  com- 
mon this  is.  In  many  places  we  have  been  warned 
to  be  careful  and  not  travel  before  day  light  or  after 
dark. 

We  were  in  Honduras  the  first  time  we  really  got 
a  taste  of  robber  life  and  had  good  reasons  to  wish 
our  surroundings  were  different. 

The  first  incident  was  when  we  were  taking  a  few 
days'  trip  on  foot  and  had  stopped  in  a  village  to 
hire  a  man  to  go  along  and  carry  our  baggage.  Af- 
ter arranging  with  him,  he  brought  "his  friend" 
who  wanted  to  go  also,  as  the  first  one  felt  the  load 
would  be  rather  heavy  for  him  alone.  So  we  agreed 
to  pay  a  little  more,  board  both  of  them  and  let 
them  divide  the  money.  The  first  thing  naturally 
was  to  get  them  some  food  before  they  could  start. 
They  then  came  with  two  more  who  were  going 


88  ON  MULEBACK 

along  for  company  and  were  to  board  themselves. 
We  began  feeling  a  little  uncomfortable,  but  said 
nothing. 

After  we  were  on  the  way  we  discovered  our  men 
were  heavily  armed  with  revolvers  belted  around 
them  and  "machetes"  hanging  to  the  belts  also.  It 
was  only  a  little  while  until  they  began  inquiring 
if  we  were  armed.  By  the  time  we  were  well  out 
in  the  forest  and  climbing  the  mountains,  they  be- 
gan falling  back  with  our  baggage,  until  we  would 
have  to  keep  waiting  for  them.  We  overheard 
them  at  various  times  talking  about  us,  but  it  'had 
been  our  hope  all  along  to  reach  the  town  before 
night.  To  our  surprise,  night  ran  us  down  juai 
as  our  streno-th  was  giving  out,  and  we  were  in  a 
swampy  forest.  No  house,  no  friends,  except  our 
escort  of  four,  who  began  insisting  that  we  stop  for 
the  night,  and  renewed  their  questions  about  wheth- 
er we  were  armed.  We  finally  opened  up  our  rolls 
and  with  our  blankets  and  'olothes  made  such  beds 
as  we  could.  But  our  Indians  would  not  quiet 
down;  they  kept  going  out  in  the  bushes  two  at  a 
time  to  talk.  After  awhile  we  told  them  they  must 
now  get  to  bed.  Our  light  was  out,  but  we  had 
that  peculiar  sensation  that  some  one  was  looking 
at  us. 

Finally  we  flashed  a  little  "electric  flash  light" 
which  we  carried  along,  and  the  best  armed  man  of 
the  crowd  had  his  eyes  wide  open  and  was  looking 
right  at  us.     The  "flash  light"  frightened  them. 


THROUGH  CENTRAL  AMERICA.      89 

and  the  fellow  who  was  looking  at  us  jumped,  but 
Brother  Edwards  said  in  a  quiet  tone:  "Never 
mind,  go  to  sleep;  it  doesn't  shoot  unless  we  touch 
the  trigger;  that  is  just  the  light."  The  men  said : 
"Buenos  noehes,  Senors,"  (good  night,  my  lords) 
and  they  went  to  sleep. 

But  the  fun  was  not  over.  I  have  a  habit  of 
lighting  a  candle  or  the  lantern  long  enough  before 
the  others  of  the  party  arise,  to  read  a  few  chapters 
from  His  word.  As  we  were  planning  to  leave  at 
3  a.  m.  it  was  necessary  for  me  to  stir  pretty  early. 
On  account  of  the  weight  of  my  money  belt  which  I 
wore  under  my  clothes  during  the  hours  of  travel,  T 
had  taken  it  off  after  we  were  in  bed  and  with  my 
watch  securely  tucked  away  in  it,  I  stretched  the 
belt  lengthwise  between  us  under  the  cover.  Awak- 
ening quite  early  I  got  hold  of  my  flash  light,  and 
then  quietly  reached  down  between  myself  and  my 
interpreter  to  get  my  watch  out  of  the  belt.  Bro. 
Edwards  felt  me  reaching  for  the  belt  and  grabbed 
my  hand  with  all  his  might,  threw  his  arm  around 
my  own  and  proceeded  to  take  me  prisoner  for  try- 
ing to  steal  what  little  money  we  carried.  I  had 
to  awaken  him  and  assure  him  it  was  a  missionary 
and  not  an  Indian. 

After  a  hard  ti-amp  that  day  the  writer  was  laid 
up  physically  and  this  was  a  good  excuse  for  us  to 
dispose  of  our  traveling  companions. 

The  most  serious  time  we  had  with  robbers  was 
in  another  part  of  the  country.     We  were  riding 


90  ON  MUIiEBACK 

along  when.!  a  native  came  into  the  road  by  our  side 
with  a  big  gun  strapped  over  his  shoulder  and 
asked  where  we  were  going,  saying  he  was  going 
with  us.  We  gave  him-  a  very  cool  reply  as  to  where 
we  were  going  and  did  not  express  ourselves  about 
his  company,  but  ju?t  pushed  our  animals  up  a  lit- 
tle. As  we  were  entering  a  village  we  soon  halted 
to  give  our  animals  some  food  and  get  a  lunch  for 
ourselves.  The  man  rode  up  in  five  minutes,  dis- 
mounted and  took  a  lunch  also.  We  lay  down  by 
the  roadside  to  rest  and  he  talked  to  our  hostess. 
Brother  Edwards  could  hear  the  conversation  at 
times,  though  they  talked  very  low.  We  heard 
enough  to  know  the  man  was  planning  against  us, 
and  at  one  time  Brother  Edwards  opened  his  eyes 
Just  in  time  to  find  the  man  with  his  gun  pointed 
right  at  him.  After  telling  the  woman  in  a  very 
low  voice  what  he  would  do,  etc.,  'be  got  on  his  mule 
and  rode  off. 

We  soon  began  saddling  to  move  on,  when  the 
woman  warned  us  not  to  go  or  we  would  be  robbed. 
Whether  she  was  our  friend,  or  helping  to  plot 
against  us  we  did  not  know,  and  there  was  no  way 
to  find  out.  If  we  stayed  was  the  man  to  return? 
Or  was  she  our  friend  really  warning  us  against 
danger  ahead? 

We  prayed  and  weighed  the  matter  the  best  we 
could.  Thirty  miles  would  put  us  in  a  city  with 
an  American  Consul  and  with  officers.  It  was  then 
late  in  the  afternoon,  and  we  had  thirty  miles  ahead 


THEOUGH   CENTKAL  AMERICA.       91 

of  us  right  across  a  mountain.  Our  animals  liad 
traveled  until  late  the  night  before;  we  started  at 
daylight  that  morning  and  had  made  the  best  time 
of  any  day's  travel.  We  felt  it  best  to  press  for- 
ward, trusting  Jesus. 

It  only  took  thirty  minutes  to  sight  our  man 
ahead  of  us  traveling  slowly.  We  put  spurs  to  our 
animals.  Finally  we  found  a  place  where  a  by- 
path led  right  up  the  side  of  the  mountain,  while 
the  plain  road  went  around.  Our  man  had  taken 
the  better  road  so  we  cut  across  on  the  shorter  path. 
Dismounting  we  pressed  our  mules,  hoping  to  cut 
in  ahead,  but  kept  our  eyes  on  our  new  acquaint- 
ance. We  were  looking  at  him  when  he  first  saw 
us  and  the  moment  he  got  his  eye  on  us  he  turned 
immediately  to  the  left,  leaving  the  road,  and  start- 
ed straight  through  the  bu^h  toward  us.  By  this 
time  we  had  mounted  again  and  were  spurring  up. 
The  good  Lord  who  has  used  various  means  to  cai'e 
for  his  servants,  but  who  has  never  failed  to  care 
for  them  in  some  way,  brought  along  a  "mule 
train"  Just  at  that  time.  We  knew  no  harm  could 
be  done  while  these  men  with  the  mule  train  were 
in  sight,  so  we  arranged  for  the  writer  to  ride  in 
front,  Brother  Edwards  behind,  so  I  could  turn 
around  and  talk  to  him,  at  the  same  time  watching 
our  pursuer. 

We  began  to  push  ahead  faster  than  ever.  Get- 
ting a  hill  between  us  we  ran  our  animals  for  some 
time,  but  to  our  surprise  when  we  looked  back  we 


92  ON  MULEBACK 

saw  him  in  sight.  We  prayed  and  spurred  our 
mules,  while  he  pursued. 

It  is  possible  we  were  needlessly  friglitened,  but 
in  speaking  to  an  agent  of  the  American  Bible  So- 
ciety of  the  occurrence  he  said  we  did  well  to  get 
tfirough,  for  the  village  referred  to,  and  one  near  it, 
were  the  worst  places  for  robbers  and  murderers  in 
all  that  part  of  Central  America.  He  told  us  of  a 
pitched  battle  there  between  a  band  of  robbers  and 
the  people  of  the  village,  six  of  the  robbers  and  one 
man  from  the  village  beino-  killed. 

How  we  have  thanked  our  heavenly  Father  that 
on  those  trips  He  verified  the  promise  to  let  His 
angel  encamp  round  about  His  own.  This  He  has 
fulfilled  in  our  case  dozens  of  times. 


THROUGH   CENTRAL   AMERICA.       93 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

HONDURAS  FROM  THE  INTERIOR. 

After  touching  Honduras  from  the  Guatemala 
side  where  we  visited  Oeotapeca  and  were  given 
twenty-four  hours  to  get  out  of  the  country,  we 
went  back  to  the  coast,  down  to  Port  Cortez,  and 
entered  again  at  that  point  from  the  Atlantic, 
pressing  through  by  Tegucigalpa  the  capital,  and  on 
to  Amapala  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 

We  have  no  doubt  from  what  we  learned  that 
Honduras  has  great  natural  wealth.  There  are 
many  gold  mines  and  much  of  the  land  is  indeed 
very  fertile.  Most  anything  in  the  way  of  tropical 
fruits  can  be  grown  with  great  success. 

Honduras  extends  from  the  Atlantic,  clear  across 
to  the  Pacific,  with  ports  of  entry  on  both  coasts. 
It  is  hard  in  any  of  these  countries  to  get  anything 
in  the  way  of  statistics  that  can  be  relied  upon. 
The  population  is  variously  estimated  at  from  700,- 
000  to  1,000,000  people.  Judging  from  what  we 
saw,  the  Honduranian  is  principally  Indian  and 
Spanis'h-Indian,  with  comparatively  few  real  Span- 
ish people.  The  language  is  Spanish,  The  In- 
dians, so  far  as  we  could  find,  all  speak  Spanish. 
Of  course,  the  Spanish  is  not  pure,  but  a  rather 
crude  sort.  Down  on  the  Atlantic  coast  the  Eng- 
lish language  is  largely  used  and  we  were  told  that 


94  ON  MULEBACK 

it  is  rapidly  jjDreadiiig.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
Americans  are  making  large  investments  through 
there  in  fruit  farms,  gold  mines,  etc. 

Tegucigalpa,  the  new  'capital  of  Honduras,  is  in 
the  far  interior  just  beyond  the  ^^divide"  on  the  Pa- 
cific slope.  This  puts  it  up  a  few  thousand  feet 
high,  and  the  climate  is  very  good.  There  are  many 
Ameri(^an  interests  in  the  capital,  just  as  in  other 
parts  of  the  country.  We  found  a  number  of  busi- 
ness men  there  from  the  United  States,  and  more 
from  Germany. 

In  each  valley  as  we  crossed  the  country  we  would 
find  a  good  sized  town  or  small  city.  They  were 
nestled  down  there  between  mountains  from  one  to 
three  hundred  miles  from  tlie  coast,  with  no  pos- 
sible way  of  reaching  the  outside  world  except  on 
foot,  the  back  of  a  mule  or  by  ox-cart.  All  freight 
must  be  transferred  in  the  same  way.  It  is  a  com- 
mon thing  to  meet  a  "mule  train"  coming  aroun.l 
the  side  of  the  mountain  on  a  little  mountain  trail. 
This  mule  train  consists  usually  of  twenty  or  thirty 
mules  led  by  a  man  riding  in  front  to  direct  the 
way,  with  two  or  tliree  helpers  following  along 
keeping  the  mules  in  the  path,  and  seeing  that  the 
loads  are  properly  fastened  on  their  backs. 

These  cargo  for  eaioh  mule  consists  perhaps  of 
two  small  barrels  or  large  kegs  of  rum;  or  it  may 
be  dry  goods,  groceries  or  hardware,  for  all  goods 
must  be  carried  in  this  way.  This  same  mule  train 
has  likely  taken  a  load  of  coffee  or  some  ot^er  pro- 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.      95 

duct  of  the  countiy  out  to  the  port,  and  on  their  re- 
turn bring  a  load  of  imported  products.  Of  course, 
this  makes  all  articles  not  grown  or  made  in  the 
country  very  expensive. 

The  roads  vary  in  quality.  We  have  ridden  or 
walked  where  with  reasonable  ease,  an  auto  could 
have  been  run,  when  all  at  once  it  changed  to  a 
bridle  path  so  poor  we  could  hardly  distinguish  it, 
and  at  times  we  found  it  extremely  dangerous  io 
take  our  animal  over.  In  fact,  we  sometimes  found 
it  necessary  to  dismount  and  lead  or  drive  our 
mules.  We  would  not  care  to  describe  some  roads 
we  have  seen  used  as  cart  roads.  Had  we  been  toid 
they  were  used  for  carts  w^e  would  not  have  believed 
it,  but  we  saw  the  carts  being  drawn  by  the  oxen. 
These  carts — the  only  vehicle  we  saw — were  two- 
wheeled,  and  the  wheels  were  made  of  solid  wood 
with  an  iron  tire. 


90  ON  MULEBACK 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

EATEN"  ALIVE. 

The  general  impression  about  the  health  of  Cen- 
tral America  is  misleading.  Most  people  visiting 
these  countries  only  touch  the  coast  towns  where, 
of  course,  it  is  low  and  swampy.  This  necessarily 
makes  it  a  nest  for  mosquitoes,  and  consequently 
fever  districts. 

But  Central  America  as  a  whole  is  not  swampy, 
nor  are  there  many  mosquitoes,  for  the  country  is 
mountainous.  Back  from  the  Atlantic  coast  the 
broken  hill  and  mountain  district  begins;  while  on 
the  Pacific  side  it  is  just  like  North  'and  South 
America — the  e'levation  begins  right  at  the  coast. 
Some  of  the  towns  and  cities  are  from  four  to  seven 
thousand  feet  above  the  sea  level. 

This  does  not  act  entirely  as  a  quarantine  against 
the  poor,  hated,  despised  and  long  fought,  old  mos- 
quito, for  down  on  the  coast  they  flourish;  and  up 
some  of  the  rivers,  especially  in  the  swampy  wood- 
land where  it  has  not  been  cleared  and  ditched,  they 
do  not  need  the  command  in  Genesis  to  ''be  fruit- 
ful and  multiply  and  replenish  the  earth."  That  is 
their  hobby;  it  seems  to  be  the  purpose  for  which 
they  were  created. 

While  we  generally  carried  a  mosquito  bar  or  net- 
ting with  us,  we  seldom  used  it  away  from  the  coast. 


THROUGH   CENTRAL   AMERICA.       97 

We  usually  needed  a  blanket  instead.  One  night, 
however,  we  did  need  the  netting  when  we  did  not 
have  it.  After  tramping  all  day,  and  until  dark, 
we  crossed  the  Rio  Blanco — White  River — and  there 
found  an  Indian  hut.  They  agreed  to  furnish  us 
some  corn  cakes  for  our  supper.  Being  so  tired  it 
seemed  we  could  not  possibly  make  another  mile  we 
decided  to  stop  for  the  night.  They  had  no  room 
to  offer  us  for  sleeping,  so  we  had  to  take  to  the 
woods. 

Bro.  Edwards  and  the  writer  found  a  few  punch- 
eon boards,  where  once  there  had  been  a  bridge 
l)uilt  across  this  river.  On  two  poles  we  made  a 
scaffold  on  which  we  spread  our  clothes  and  one  of 
our  cotton  blankets;  the  other  blanket  we  kept  to 
cover  with. 

We  were  fighting  mosquitoes  while  erecting  our 
quarters,  but  when  we  were  once  quieted  down  they 
called  in  all  their  neighbors  and  seemed  to  be  say- 
ing, "We  have  met  our  first  American  tonight  and 
must  make  it  so  warm  for  them  they  will  not  re- 
turn." 

There  was  a  time  when  they  commenced,  but  they 
never  ceased.  Finally  we  got  up  and  went  to  the 
Indian  hut,  having  seen  a  netting  made  of  thin  do- 
mestic, and  offered  the  old  woman  $5  for  the  use  of 
her  "mosquito  netting"  until  3  o'clock  the  next 
morning.  (It  was  $5  of  their  money,  equaling 
about  $2  American  money.)  With  a  sneer  that 
would  have  befitted  a  millionaire  she  said,  "I  would 


98  ON  MULEBACK 


not  be  troubled  witli  tbem  pesky  things  till  morning 
for  twenty  dollars,"  and  turned  aiway  from  us. 

My  interpreter  tried  to  make  a  plea  for  it  on  the 
grounds  that  I  was  sick,  but  it  did  not  take  hold, 
so  in  our  bare  feet  and  pajamas  we  tunied  back  to 
our  place  in  the  woods.  After  trying  one  plan  and 
then  another,  we  finally  pulled  our  blanket  clear  over 
our  heads,  turned  our  faces  down  and  put  our  noses 
right  in  the  crack  between  two  of  the  puncheon 
boards.  Thus  we  breathed  through  a  crack  in  tlie 
bottom  of  our  bed  and  kept  covered  up,  heads  and 
heels,  except  when  one  of  us  moved,  and  then  we 
were  promptly  notified  by  the  mosquitoes. 

After  such  a  night,  any  physician  reading  these 
lines  will  not  be  surprised  when  we  say  that  the 
next  afternoon  we  began  to  chill  and  had  high 
fever. 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.       99 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

HOTELS   BY   THE   WAY. 

In  the  larger  cities  of  Central  America  one  who 
has  not  been  used  to  the  best  cannot  grumble,  at  the 
hotel  accommodations.  Of  course,  the  beds  are 
generally  ^without  springs  and  very  hard,  and  the 
food  is  not  altogether  appetizing,  though  the  prices 
are,  as  a.  rule,  as  high  as  those  of  a  first  class  hotel 
in  the  United  States. 

On  a  long  trip  across  the  country  such  as  we  took 
more  than  once,  it  is  often  necessary  to  stop  in 
small  towns  and  villages,  and  even  in  a  hut  by  the 
roadside.  More  than  once  the  writer  has  begged  the 
occupant  of  some  lonely  hut  on  the  mountain  side 
to  open  his  door  to  us. 

In  passing  through  from  Port  Cortez  on  the  At- 
lantic Coast  to  Amapala  on  the  Pacific  we  had 
many  such  experiences.  One  evening  just  as  dusk 
was  gathering,  we  rode  up  to  the  last  hut  we  were 
to  pass  for  another  fifteen  or  twenty  miles.  The 
path  lay  through  wild  mountain  gorges  and  over 
high  peaks.  We  called  at  this  little  hut  and  were 
answered  by  a  bare-footed,  ragged  fellow  who  bore 
the  independent  air  of  a  king.  He  finally  decided 
to  let  us  remain,  but  after  dismounting  told  us  he 
could  not  feed  us  or  our  mules.  We  argued  with 
him  until  he  agreed  to  feed  the  animals  and  said 


100  ON  MULEBAOK 

lie  would  give  us  some  "tortellas" — the  cake  made 
of  ground  corn  and  water.  We  begged  and  offered 
more  money  and  he  finally  agreed  to  give  us  some 
"frijoles." 

After  our  supper,  which  we  enjoyed  very  much, 
we  had  a  good  talk  and  then  came  the  question  oi 
quarters  for  the  night.  The  hut  had  two  small 
rooms  with  dirt  floors  and  a  porch.  In  one  room 
the  cooking  was  done;  that  room  was  perhaps  7x10 
feet-  The  other  room  was  about  10x10  feet.  An 
old  man  was  already  in  there  aeleep  on  a  puncheon 
board.  There  were  two  beds,  such  as  they  were. 
One  of  them  had  a  dry,  but  untanned  cow  hide  over 
it.  When  we  asked  for  our  beds  we  were  told  we 
could  have  none.  We  insisted  and  even  offered  to 
pay  more,  but  were  told  in  a  very  blunt  manner  we 
could  not  have  a  bed. 

The  writer  was  very  sick  and  had  been  compelled 
to  dismount  several  times  during  the  day  and  lie 
down  on  the  roadside  to  rest.  We  felt  we  must  get 
some  rest.  My  companion  hired  a  hammock  from 
the  Indian  boy  who  w^as  going  along  to  take  the 
mules  back. 

I  went  in  the  room  and  crawled  up  on  the  bed 
with  the  cowhide  and  stretched  my  weary  bones  on 
old  Jersey's  last  covering.  Our  host  came  in  soon 
and  to'ld  me  to  get  up,  but  I  replied  that  I  did  not 
understand  Spanish.  He  continued  to  jabber,  but 
I  held  to  the  cowhide.  Finally  Mr.  Edwards  told 
him  he  had  better  let  me  alone  and  he  would  pay 


THROUGH  CENTRAL  AMERICA.       101 

him  extra  for  my  bed.  When  the  "Inn  Keeper" 
found  he  could  not  get  his  bed  but  could  get  some 
money  he  surrendered.  My  old  friend  on  the  pun- 
cheon board  was  snoring,  and  though  he  snored  iu 
Spanish  it  seemed  quite  as  annoying  as  in  English. 

A  deserter  from  the  Honduras  army,  who  had 
traveled  with  us  during  the  day  on  his  way, to  his 
home,  'finally  carried  in  another  board  and  stretched 
out  on  it. 

We  spent  the  night  (?melling  old  Jersey's  hide, 
turning  over  and  over  to  rest  the  sore  spots,  and 
flashing  our  little  electric  flashlight  to  let  them 
know  we  were  not  sleeping  very  soundly,  for  we 
had  found  by  experience  that  we  never  knew  when 
we  were  in  the  company  of  robbers. 

We  would  remind  our  reader  that  this  was  not 
our  only  hotel  of  the  kind,  but  only  one  example 
of  many  in  which  we  had  to  stay. 


102  ON  MULEBACiK 


CHAPTEE  XXVI. 

OUR  BEDS. 

It  is  unbecoming  for  one  to  be  always  heard  tell- 
ing their  troubles.  But  we  believe  there  are  thoee 
who  would  like  to  know  "the  other  side"  of  mission- 
ary life.  While  leading  our  horses  down  the  side 
of  a  mountain  one  day  we  remarked  to  Bro.  Eeid, 
"We  are  sorry  for  the  people  who  are  pitying  us,'" 
so  do  not  understand  that  we  are  asking  for  sym- 
pathy. 

Of  course,  even  missionaries  must  sleep  a  little 
now  and  then.  But  what  are  the  beds?  Much  of 
the  time  the  writer  had  as  a  mattress  his  little  black 
alpaca  coat,  and  as  springs  his  trousers ;  for  a  pillow 
his  leather  roll  in  which  he  carried  a  change  of 
underclothing,  etc. 

We  had  a  light  cotton  blanket  along  to  cover 
with.  We  learned  so  well  to  enjoy  a  good  firm  bed 
with  no  springs  or  padding  that  when  we  stopped 
one  night  in  the  home  of  a  missionary  who  gave  us 
a  spring  cot  with  two  clean  sheets,  we  found  it  dif- 
ficult to  sleep  on  the  soft  bed  of  springs. 

The  reader  must  remember  we  visit  many  towns 
where  there  'are  no  hotels  and  no  "believers,"  so  W2 
are  glad  to  get  one  room  in  an  o'ld  house  with  no  one 
living  in  it.  In  the  states  we  have  helped  sing  that 
song  about  not  being  able  to  sleep  unless  we  had  a 


THEOUGH    CENTEAL  AMEEICA.     103 

good  bed;  but  we  have  learned  that  most  people  on 
earth  do  not  have  a  good  bed,  if  indeed  any  at  all, 
and  we  are  beginning  to  believe  that  if  the  "soft- 
ness" with  which  we  care  for  ourselves  at  home  was 
sacrificed  for  some  necessities  to  be  given  to  our 
brothers  in  these  lands  we  would  be  better  able  tj 
reach  them — and  perhaps  sleep  better  ourselves. 

We  passed  down  the  street  one  night  and  counted 
sixty-five  men,  women  and  children  lying  on  the 
brick  side  walk  all  in  a  row,  with  no  bedding.  They 
were  getting  a  little  rest  that  they  might  continue 
their  hard,  toilsome  journey  to  worship  a  famous 
idol. 

The  writer  is  beginning  to  believe  that  we  do  not 
need  near  as  many  things  as  we  think  we  do.  The 
reader  must  understand  we  were  never  lonesome  at 
night,  for  our  beds,  hard  as  they  were,  never  failed 
to  furnish  plenty  of  company,  and  the  little  fellows 
were  persistent  in  their  efforts  all  night  long;  but 
we  have  learned  that  even  in  this  He  can  answer 
prayer. 

We  had  taken  with  us  folding  cots,  a  hammock 
and  blankets  to  be  used  in  this  campaign,  but  on 
these  long  hard  trips  on  muleback  over  the  moun- 
tains we  simply  could  not  carry  such  articles  of 
luxury,  and  had  to  be  content  with  whatever  ac- 
commodations we  were  able  to  'find  along  the  way. 


104  ON  MULEBACK 

CHAPTEE  XXVII. 

OUR  MULES. 

We  would  not  have  our  reader  understand  th'-it 
we  did  all  of  our  traveling  on  mulehack  for  some  of 
it  was  on  horseback.  On  three  occasions  we  took 
short  trips  on  little  railroads.  This  did  not  in- 
clude the  first  class  railroad  on  the  Isthmus  of  Pan- 
ama. Of  course,  when  traveling  down  the  coast, 
both  on  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  sides  we  used  the 
steamt?hips,  and  up  some  rivers  we  used  little  launch- 
es and  river  steamers.  Between  150  and  200  miles 
we  covered  on  foot. 

There  is  no  way  of  computing  distance  as  we  do 
in  the  United  States,  for  they  calculate  by  the 
league,  and  in  some  places  a  league  is  one  distance 
and  in  other  places  it  is  entirely  another.  They 
told  us  in  Guatemala  a  league  was  three  miles,  and 
in  Honduras  it  was  four  miles.  We  are  certain  we 
are  on  the  safe  side  in  saying  we  traveled  in  the 
saddle  between  1,200  and  1,500  miles,  and  most  of 
this  was  on  mountain  trails,  where  at  times  there 
was  no  path  whatever. 

We  remember  one  occasion  when  we  had  a  very 
large  river  to  ford.  There  was  no  sign  of  a  path 
leading  into  or  out  of  it,  so  our  only  hope  was  to 
get  in  the  best  way  possible  and  lead  our  animals 
u])  a  steep  bank  on  the  opposite  side  and  continue 


N^ 


THROUGH   CENTRAL   AMERICA.     105 

our  search  for  some  signs  of  where  others  had  pre- 
ceded us. 

The  long  eared  mix-up  of  God's  species  that  car- 
ried us  over  these  steep  and  stony  places  were  five 
in  numl^er.  In  keeping  with  the  invariable  record 
of  all  their  ancestors,  each  one  had  their  bad  "mule 
tricks";  but  on  the  whole  they  were  good,  faithful 
mules. 

Our  mule  missionary  number  one  was  "Bill." 
Bill  was  a  faithful  representative  of  the  "Balaam 
family."  He  has  been  used  for  a  long  time  by  a 
missionary  friend  and  was  pretty  well  up  on  the 
trials,  dutiee,  burdens  and  hards'hips  of  the  mission- 
ary. Bill  was  strong,  a  good  traveler  and  per- 
fectly safe  "on  the  whole."  But  the  writer  has 
found  that  in  dealing  with  long-eared  stock  it  -^ 
good  to  even  sleep  with  one  eye  open  and  keep  it 
fixed  on  the  mule. 

We  rode  Bill  up  steep  bluffs  on  mountain  sides 
where  a  jack-rabbit  would  tire  in  climbing,  but 
whether  going  up  or  down  Bill  showed  more  judg- 
ment and  knowledge  of  mountain  travel  than  his 
rider.  Only  on  one  occasion  did  Bill  do  anything 
for  which  we  would  be  justified  in  criticisinof  him, 
and  he  was  likely  not  to  blame  even  in  that  case. 
We  were  riding  along  on  one  of  the  rnuddiest  roads 
we  ever  saw  and  were  just  passing  a-  little  6x6  foot 
shed  with  a  large  cross  in  it,  placed  there  by  the 
Indians  and  "blessed"  by  the  priest,  so  it  could  help 
them  when  they  prayed  to  it,  while  passing  along 


106  ON  muleback: 


the  road.  Just  as  Bill  got  opposite  the  cross  he 
proceeded  to  get  down  on  his  knees,  and  as  he  was 
in  a  gallop  when  he  did  it  the  crupper  that  held  our 
saddle  back  broke  loose,  and  we  had  trouble  of  our 
own  about  that  time. 

Our  next  journey  on  Bill's  back  was  from  Coban 
to  Cristobal.  On  this  journey  he  gave  us  a  safe  and 
easy  trip.  While  in  that  place  our  efforts  were 
blessed.  Large  crowds  turned  out  to  hear  the  gos- 
pel and  some  of  them  begged  us  to  remain. 

Mule  number  two  was  a  government  mule  which 
we  secured  in  Baja  Vera  Paz  to  carry  us  to  the 
railroad.  Wc  hired  three  of  them  to  supply  Bro. 
Edwards,  Bro.  Ecid  and  the  writer.  We  must  con- 
fess the  writer  had  his  eye  on  a  certain  saddle,  but 
the  mules  had  to  be  divided,  and  just  how  to  do  it 
was  the  question.  The  brethren  suggested  that  we 
write  the  color  of  each  mule  on  a  separate  slip  of 
paper  and  then  draw  for  them.  After  a  good  laugh 
the  names  w'ere  prepared  and  we  allowed  the  others 
to  draw  and  took  what  was  left.  The  result  was  we 
got  the  saddle  in  anticipation  and  of  course  the 
mule  that  went  with  it.  He  was  a  great  big,  fat, 
long-eared,  stout,  lazy  bay  mule.  Every  time  I 
spurred  him  (for  I  must  confess  with  shame  that  I 
used  a  spur),  ho  would  move  up  a  little  bit  faster, 
})ut  groan  like  he  was  dying.  For  two  days  and 
much  of  one  night  I  listened  to  his  lonesome  groans 
except  when  I  would  get  off  and  walk  to  rest  my 
ears.. 


o 


THROUGH   CENTEAL  AMEEICA.     107 

Mule  missionary  number  three  was  "Breezy."  She 
was  really  a  little  beauty,  one  of  the  best  saddle 
mules  I  was  ever  on.  I  have  ridden  Breezy  fifty 
miles  through  the  mountains  in  one  day  and  when 
we  reached  our  destination  she  seemed  as  fresh  as 
when  we  started  in  the  morning. 

Breezy  belongs  to  the  missionaries  of  the  Friends 
Church  at  Chiquimula,  Guatemala. 

Mule  number  four  we  secured  at  Santa  Cruz, 
Honduras.  For  two  long  hot  days  we  had  been 
tramping  under  the  hot  sun  through  the  interior  of 
Honduras,  unable  to  get  anything  to  ride.  At  Santa 
Cruz  the  writer  broke  completely  down  and  we  were 
compelled  to  have  something  to  ride.  We  secured 
one  poor  little  bony,  raw-backed  horse  for  our  in- 
terpreter and  a  little  mule  that  looked  about  as 
much  like  a  big  Jack-rabbit  as  a  mule,  for  myself. 
His  back  was  also  sore,  for  these  poor  animals  have 
to  carry  the  freight,  rum,  coffee,  etc.,  from  the  in- 
terior to  the  ports  and  back,  distances  anywhere 
from  fifty  to  three  hundred  miles. 

By  feeding  heavy,  resting  often,  and  making 
short  rides,  this  mule  served  us  pretty  well  until  the 
owner's  son,  who  had  come  along  to  return  the 
mules,  allowed  his  back  to  get  fearfully  sore.  He 
would  saddle  him  each  time  without  telling  us  Jutif 
w'hat  condition  he  was  in,  and  let  me  ride  until  I 
took  the  saddle  off  one  evening  to  find  his  back  in  .i 
horrible  condition. 

The  only  possible  thing  left  to  be  done  was  for 


lus  ON  mulebaoe: 

me  to  find  mule  number  five.  This  change  was 
made  at  Floras,  Honduras.  The  first  place  we  found 
that  number  four's  back  was  out  of  condition  was 
where  we  found  number  five  all  ready  for  us,  and  it 
was  less  than  twenty- four  hours  until  we  found  why. 
Tic,  whose  we  were  and  whom  we  serve,  permitted 
this  trouble  to  come  upon  us.  We  fell  into  the 
hands  of  a  robber  the  next  afternoon  and  had  we 
not  been  on  fresh  animals  there  is  no  question  but 
our  money  would  have  been  taken,  and  we  would 
have  received  bodily  harm. 

The  average  home  on  mission  fields  is  not  like  our 
American  home.  In  Central  America  with  most 
natives  the  wife  is  little  more  than  a  slave  or  ser- 
vant in  the  home.  It  is  a  common  thing  to  meet  a 
man  in  the  road  on  his  horse  or  mule  while  his  wife 
(or  the  woman  he  lives  with)  walks  by  his  side,  or 
behind  him  with  a  child  on  her  back,  and  possibly  a 
bundle  on  her  head.  This,  of  "course,  is  not  always 
the  case,  but  it  is  common.  In  the  home,  we  arc 
told,  the  average  woman  does  not  sit  at  the  table 
(if  they  have  a  table)  with  her  Senor — ^lord — but 
while  he  eats  she  serves,  or  sits  on  the  floor  and  eats 
with  the  children. 

One  of  the  hard  things  for  the  missionary  to  ac- 
complish in  the  home,  after  its  members  are  saved, 
is  to  get  the  home  regulated  with  the  wife  and 
mother  having  her  place  at  the  table.  One  mission- 
ary told  the  writer  that  as  soon  as  a  native  family 
were  saved,  she  began  to  drill  them  to  act  like  a 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.     109 

"Christian  family."  She  tells  them  the  wife  is  as 
good  as  the  husband,  and  that  the  wife  should  sit 
at  one  end  of  the  table  while  the  husband  sits  dt 
the  other,  with  the  children  at  the  side.  With  thir^ 
feeling  of  the  husband  for  his  wife,  which  is  prac- 
ticed by  all  and  has  been  for  centuries,  it  is  indeed 
hard  .for  the  lord  of  the  home  to  confess  he  has 
wronged  his  wife. 

How  we  were  startled,  or  rather  how  we  ac- 
knowledged the  power  of  the  gospel,  when  at  one 
service  in  Chiquimula  camp  meeting  four  husbands, 
one  right  after  the  other,  stood  up  with  tlieir  wives 
by  their  sides;  facing  the  congregation,  and  key- 
ing a  hand  on  the  wife's  shoulder  publicly  con- 
fessed they  had  not  lived  with  them  as  they  should. 
They  asked  the  audience  to  forgive  them,  and  then 
while  weeping  begged  the  wife  to  forgive.  Only  the 
missionary  to  Latin  America  could  appreciate 
what  this  meant. 

One  of  the  men  who  thus  confessed,  we  saw  look 
all  over  the  congregation  to  find  hie  wife.  He  then 
brought  her  to  the  altar  where  they  prayed  to- 
gether before  making  his  public  statement.  This 
same  man  was  a  saloon  keeper  when  we  reached 
Central  America  in  November.  Truly  the  gospel  of 
.Tesus  Christ  is  the  power  of  God  unto  Salvation. 


110  ON  ]\riTLEBACK 


CHAPTER  XXVIIT. 

WHAT    WE   ATE. 

The  writer  suffered  nearly  all  his  life  with  a  had 
stomach  until  he  began  missionary  work.  Whether, 
sea-sickness  has  helped,  or  prayer  to  God  for  an  ap- 
petite to  eat  food  we  could  not  possibly  relish,  or 
whether  it  is  the  result  of  being  in  the  center  of  His 
will,  we  do  not  know.  But  one  thing  we  do  know, 
we  can  enjoy  today  what  we  could  not  eat  at  all  a 
few  years  ago. 

Ofttimes  we  would  sit  down  on  the  ground  in 
the  back  yard  or  on  the  dirt  floor  of  a  porch  with 
our  food  in  gourds — sometimes  one  gourd  for  the 
crowd  to  drink  from.  The  food,  when  out  on  these 
trips,  consisted  principally  of  '^tortellas  and  frijoles."' 
The  tortella  is  a  corn-cake;  the  corn  is  soaked  in 
ashes  and  water  until  it  is  swollen  and  the  outer 
skin  comes  off,  it  is  then  washed  and  put  on  a  stone 
and  crushed  into  a  doughy  meal  with  another  stone, 
a  little  water  thrown  on  as  it  is  thoroughly  rubbed 
and  then  made  into  little  cakes  and  baked.  It  is 
nothing  but  the  corn  and  water,  no  salt,  soda  or 
milk. 

The  frijoles  (free-holies)  are  black  beans;  these 
with  the  corn -cakes,  as  a  rule,  comprised  the  meal 
set  before  us.  Sometimes  we  had  to  kick  the  hogs  oat 
of  the  way  and  knock  the  dogs  aside.  Then  there  was 


THROUGH   CENTEAL  AMERICA.     Ill 

little  certainty  and  much  doubt  about  what  kind  of 
meat  we  ate,  when  we  had  meat  at  all.  On  one  oc- 
casion we  are  certain  it  was  not  pork,  beef  or  chick- 
en. The  three  of  us  who  ate  it  were  pretty  well  con- 
vinced that  it  had  barked  before  we  began  trying  to 
make  it  do  missionary  work.  Do  not  blame  us  for 
we  did  not  dare  refuse  to  eat  what  they  put  in  our 
gourds. 

No,  we  did  not  travel  on  Pullman  cars,  or  eat  in 
dining  cars,  (although  this  is  not  a  sin,  and  wo 
would  not  object  to  doing  so)  but  we  were  preach- 
ing the  gospel  to  those  who  had  no  fork,  table  or 
napkins.  Many  of  them  never  saw  a  train,  but  they 
have  souls  that  must  live  while  God  lives. 


113  ON  MULEBAOE 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

BUILDING   HOUSES. 

The  average  American  would  be  surprised  to  find 
how  houses  are  built  in  these  tropical  countries.  If 
they  get  sawed  lumber  it  is  as  a  rule,  first  hewed  out 
to  a  square  log  and  then  rolled  up  on  a  big  frame 
six  to  eight  feet  from  the  ground.  A  saw  much 
like  our  cross-cut  saw  is  taken  and  with  one  man  on 
top  the  log,  and  one  beneath  it,  they  toil  on  in  the 
hot  sun,  sawing  out  lumber  for  one  of  the  better 
houses.  But  those  in  the  interior  thus  built  are 
few.  After  leaving  the  larger  coast  towns  and  the 
few  railroads,  about  eight-tenths  of  all  the  houses 
are  built  by  putting  heavy  posts  in  the  ground.  On 
top  of  these  posts  a  piece  of  timber,  which  we  will 
call  the  plate,  is  laid,  and  with  bark  or  withes  it  is 
securely  tied ;  then  on  each  side  of  these  posts  pieces 
of  timber  split  out  like  a  small  rail  are  tied,  each 
one  opposite  the  other.  These  are  some  six  or  eight 
inches  apart.  To  reinforce,  other  upright  pieces  are 
tied  to  these  split  pieces  every  few  feet. 

In  many,  eases  this  completes  the  sides  of  the 
house.  The  rule  is,  however,  that  these  split  pieces 
of  timber  are  first  "chinked  in"  with  stone  just 
large  enough  to  lodge  on  both  sides,  and  after  tlie 
stone  has  been  filled  in,  a  place  near  the  side  of 
the  house  and  ofttimes  in  the  house,  is  dug  up  and 


Two  Native  Workers  in  Central  Amer- 
ica. One  was  converted  while  read- 
ing Luke's  Gospel. 


THEOUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.     113 

water  thrown  in;  then  with  bare  feet  women,  men 
and  children  get  in  and  begin  making  mortar. 
After  a  good  tramping  that  has  thoroughly  mixed 
the  mud,  the  house  is  thoroughly  daubed  and  plas- 
tered inside  and  out.  The  mud  is  pressed  in  with 
the  stone  and  strips  of  timber  until  all  is  full,  then 
the  timber  and  stone  are  thoroughly  covered  over 
and  the  mud  smoothed  off  on  the  inside  and  out. 
Many  times  a  light  dip  of  whitewash  is  used.  There 
are  no  freezes  and  no  frost,  so  the  wall  will  stand 
like  marble,  and  the  smooth  white  appearance  is 
really  beautiful. 

The  ground  on  the  inside  is  smoothed  off  and 
beaten  down  so  that  in  a  few  years  it  is  very  hard, 
and  makes  a  nice  floor. 

For  the  covering,  rafters  are  put  up,  and  across 
them  to  take  the  place  of  our  laths  or  sheeting,  oth- 
er split  pieces  of  timber,  very  thin,  are  tied ;  on 
these  are  laid  the  palm  branches  or  cane  tops,  in 
order  much  like  we  put  on  boards  or  shingles,  and 
in  quantity  sufficient  to  turn  the  rain. 

We  have  slept  in  houses  where  the  stone  and  mud 
had  not  been  filled  in,  but  the  latticed  walls  with 
holes  six  or  eight  inches  wide  were  all  open.  In 
the  mountains  three  to  five  thousand  feet  high,  it  is 
indeed  very  cool  at  night,  for  when  the  sun  goes 
down,  there  is  generally  a  heavy  wind.  After  rid- 
ing all  day  under  a  scorching  tropical  sun  we  felt 
the  change  very  much,  with  a  heavy  cool  mountain 
wind  blowing  on  us  all  night. 


114  ON  MULEBACK 

In  the  towns  there  are  many  "adobe"  houses, 
made  of  the  adobe  brick.  In  fact,  many  of  the 
government  buildings  and  large  Catholic  Ohurcliee 
are  built  in  this  way.  The  mud  for  the  brick  is 
made  much  like  that  we  have  just  described,  except 
grass  or  some  other  similar  substance  is  mixed 'with 
the  mud.  Then  a  box  about  8x20  inches,  and  four 
inches  deep,  with  no  top  or  bottom,  is  set  in  a 
smooth  place  on  the  ground  and  filled  with  this 
mud.  After  the  sun  has  been  on  it  for  a  little  while 
the  box  frame  is  pulled  off  and  the  brick  allowed  to 
remain  in  the  sun  for  a  few  days,  to  bake.  After 
they  have  been  thoroughly  sun-baked  the  walls  are 
built  of  them.  If  the  building  is  to  be  very  high, 
especially  have  a  second  floor  and  tile  roof  to  add 
weight  to  the  lower  walls,  they  are  made  from  24  to 
36  inches  thick. 

The  reader  would  be  surprised  how  plump  they 
get  these  walls,  how^  smooth  the  surface.  Then 
when  they  are  whitewashed,  inside  and  out,  it  really 
makes  a  beautiful  building.  One  good  frost,  a  good 
freeze  and  thaw  would  fix  it  for  the  future,  but  for- 
tunately they  are  not  cursed  or  blessed  with  cold 
weather. 

The  better  houses  are  ofttimes  floored  with  a 
half  baked  brick  about  8x8  inches,  possibly  two  or 
three  inches  thick,  but  rarely  ever  floored  with 
boards.  We  have  stayed  in  hotels  where  they  had  a 
second  and  even  a  third  floor,  all  of  them  this  kind 
of  brick. 


THROUGH   CENTRAL   AMERICA.     115 

That  the  roofs  may  be  in  keeping  with  the  walls, 
but  more  fire  proof  and  permanent,  they  are  made  of 
tile.  This  is  a  half-burned  clay  in  the  shape  of  a 
six  inch  water  tiling,  cut  in  halves.  The  frame  for 
the  roof  is  prepared  much  as  we  have  described  for 
the  trash  roof,  and  the  tiling  is  laid  on  this  frame 
work. 

The  building  is  generally  one  story  high.  As  a 
rule  the  only  thing  above  the  head  is  the  inside  of 
the  roof;  but  when  they  want  to  be  more  '"up-to- 
date,"  and  have  the  house  more  complete,  it  may 
be  ceiled  over  head.  This  is  rarely  ever  done  with 
lumber,  though  we  have  seen  it.  Usually  mats, 
four  by  six  feet,  woven  by  the  natives  out  of  a  heavy 
grass  or  palm  leaves,  are  fastened  across  making  a 
ceiling  for  the  room.  Again  the  ceiling  is  only  a 
cheap  cloth  stretched  below  the  rafters. 

These  adobe  houses  are  built  in  old  Spanish  style 
in  square  or  rectangular  shape  around  a  large  open 
court,  the  outside  wall  joining  the  street,  and  the 
rooms  opening  into  this  inner  court.  If  there  are 
not  enough  rooms  to  surround  the  court,  the  wall  is 
continued  around  eight  or  ten  feet  high,  to  complete 
the  square.  This  wall  is  generally  whitewashed  to 
preserve  it  against  the  rain,  and  as  a  rule  the  top  is 
covered  with  tiling  or  old  broken  bottles  set  in  ce- 
ment. The  latter  serves  not  only  as  a  protection 
against  rain,  but  makes  it  at  the  same  time  prac- 
tically insurmountable. 

Around  the  inside  of  this  wall  are  the  stables. 


no  ON  MULEBAOIv 

servant  houses,  wash  houses,  and  other  out  build- 
ings. The  entrance  to  these  houses  is  generally  a 
large  double  door  allowing  room  to  drive  through. 
One  rides  in  through  what  is  really  one  room  of  the 
house,  unfinished.  When  once  inside  with  this  door 
locked  or  barred,  it  is  much  like  a  castle.  Each 
room  has  a  window  set  in  the  wall,  well  protected 
with  iron  bars. 

The  porch  is  on  the  inside,  fronting  the  inner 
court,  which  of  course  is  really  the  back  of  the 
house.  In  the  private  residences  of  the  more  wealthy 
classes,  these  inner  courtis  are  converted  into  flow- 
er gardens. 

The  privacy  thus  afi'orded  by  this  style  of  build- 
ing is  very  desirable  in  these  countries  where  peer- 
ing eyes  and  prying  hands  are  so  plentiful. 


THROUGH  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  117 
CHAPTER  XXX. 

DYING    WITHOUT   FRIEND,    HOME   OR   GOD. 

We  were  just  leaving  our  "hired  house"  for  the 
"construction  shed"  to  hold  the  night  service  when 
a  native  rushed  up  the  narrow  alley  to  our  door  and 
told  our  interpreter  a  dying  man  wanted  us  to  come 
and  "speak  with  him."  We  promised  to  go  as  soon 
as  the  service  was  over.  Late  at  night  we  knocked 
at  the  door  of  several  trash  covered  huts  and  finally 
found  one  with  a  candle  burning,  but  could  get  no 
answer.  We  went  to  a  window — a  hole  in  one  side 
of  the  hut — and  looking  in,  found  a  man  lying  on  a 
few  rags.  The  hut  was  about  half  covered  with 
barrel  stavet=,  while  the  remainder  had  a  dirt  floor. 

We  found  the  man  was  not  a  native  of  Central 
America,  but  from  Jamaica,  and  could  speak  Eng- 
lish. He  had  once  known  God,  but  after  coming 
here  to  seek  health  lost  God  out  of  his  heart,  and 
there  he  lay  on  a  few  rags  in  this  miserable  hut,  dy- 
ing.    His  only  light  was  a  candle. 

We  found  a  little  box  on  which  to  sit.  Poor 
creature  was  too  sick  to  speak  much.  While  we 
talked  to  him  two  of  his  companion^;  bursted  in  on 
us,  raving  and  cursing,  both  so  dnmk  they  could  not 
stand  alone.  They  wanted  to  pray  for  him  them- 
selves. We  finally  made  them  sit  down  while  we 
talked  to  the  sick  man,  and  then  kneeling  in  the  dirt 


118  ON  MULEBAOK 

and  filth  we  told  the  prodigal's  Father  about  him. 

It  had  only  been  two  days  since  we  were  in  this 
same  hut  to  look  at  a  poor  fellow  who  had  been 
killed;  here  was  another  at  the  point  of  death,  and 
the  two  remaining  men  dog  drank.  The  other 
night  when  the  one  was  lying  dead,  they  began  work 
on  a  box  to  bury  him  in,  but  were  too  drunk  to  fin- 
ish it,  and  some  of  our  party  saw  them  early  the 
next  morning  going  to  bury  him  in  the  rough  box 
with  no  lid.  They  were  too  drunk  to  carry  it  far, 
and  a  police  officer  compelled  some  men  standing 
by  to  help  take  it  on  to  the  burying  ground. 

The  sick  man,  the  one  who  was  killed,  and  those 
who  were  too  drunk  to  finish  his  box,  were  all  Eng- 
lish-speaking,  and  part  of  them  were  from  the 
United  States.  All  were  here  to  work  for  a  United 
States  firm. 

Will  we  allow  United  States  capital  to  go  where 
we  do  not  send  the  gospel?  Will  we  allow  men  to 
go  to  places  to  hunt  work  and  money  where  we,  as 
His  children,  do  not  go  to  hunt  for  "diamonds  in 
the  rough?"  American  people  go  everywhere  to 
hunt  money.  Will  we  go  along  and  give  them  the 
gospel  while  we  hunt  for  souls? 


THROUGH  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  119 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

THE  AMERICANOS  INFLUENCE  IN  CENTILIL  AMERICA. 

Without  any  desire  on  our  part  to  reflect  on  the 
character  of  American  citizens  who  live  in  Central 
America,  we  are  compelled  to  say,  their  influence  is 
not  good. 

We  are,  of  course,  to  understand  that  Americans 
are  down  there  for  money  and  not  to  do  missionary 
work.  But  that  to  which  we  refer  is  purely  a  moral 
question,  and  not  in  any  way  a  religious  or  spiritual 
one.  The  feeling  seems  to  prevail  that  they  want 
money  and  will  do  anything  to  make  it.  This  grap- 
pling, with  ofttimes  a  dishonest  spirit,  has  been 
practiced  so  long  that  '^America"  or  "American" 
seems  to  mean  to  the  natives  greed,  rascality,  and 
dishonesty. 

The  largest  percent  of  Americans  there  do  not 
have  the  best  code  of  morals  to  live  by.  It  is  not  at 
all  uncommon  to  find  them  living  with  the  native 
women,  and  raising  children  in  this  way.  One 
American  man  may  have  children  he  owns  as  his 
with  several  mothers. 

We  eat  in  a  train  crowded  with  passengers  and 
heard  American  men,  one  of  them  a  man  known 
by  reputation  all  over  Central  America,  talk  to  a 
native  woman  as  few  m^n  would  even  talk  to  fallen 
women  behind  the  closed  doors  of  a  brothel. 


130  ON  MULEBACK 

On  another  occasion  my  interpreter,  in  my  pres- 
ence, was  trying  to  sell  a  native  a  copy  of  God's 
Word.  The  train  conductor,  who  was  an  Ameri- 
can, began  with  oaths  to  make  fun,  aiid  declared 
with  a  sneer  that  the  old  book  wasn't  needed  down 
there.  Brother  E.  turned  to  the  native  man  and 
told  him  and  the  others  sitting  by  not  to  judge 
Americans  by  such  fellows.  The  conductor  asked 
to  whom  he  referred,  when  Brother  E.  replied :  "I 
refer  to  fellows  who  have  been  brought  up  and  edu- 
cated as  the  result  of  what  the  Bible  has  done  for 
us,  and  then  come  down  here  and  go  to  the  dogs." 

On  the  Canal  Zone  the  same  thing  is  true.  Amer- 
icans who  in  America  were  prominent  in  church 
work  have  gone  away  from  home  restraints  and 
given  up  to  worldliness,  and  in  many  cases  to  out- 
ward wickedness. 

With  a  few  hundred  Americans  wielding  a  bad 
influence  it  is  hard  for  one  American  missionary  to 
counteract  all  this  for  good. 

What  is  true  of  Americans  is  also  true  of  other 
English-speaking  people,  especially  the  West  In- 
dians from  Jamaica,  Barbados,  and  other  British  Is- 
lands. In  many  cases  the  very  worst  citizens  have 
come  and  their  lives  there  are  even  worse  than  at 
their  homes. 

It  is  a  sad  comment  on  British  and  American 
Christianity  that  the  very  worst  parts  of  Central 
America  are  the  districts  where  English-speaking 
people  are  in  the  lead. 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.     121 

This  is  not  the  opinion  of  a  missionary  alone,  but 
the  testimony  of  all  who  know  the  countries.  True 
they  do  not  represent  the  best  morals  of  the  coun- 
tries from  which  they  come !  but  it  seems  an  imposi- 
tion on  these  Christless,  Bibleless  countries  to 
allow  the  worst  morals  of  our  country  to  spew  out 
there,  and  those  of  us  who  believe  in  the  Bible  and 
Christ  on  which  our  nations  are  founded,  to  stand 
back  and  do  nothing  to  check  the  tide  of  evil. 

There  is  a  great  field  in  Central  America  for 
Christian  work  in  the  English  language,  and  if  the 
Church  will  send  Christians  like  the  business  world 
sends  the  other  element,  we  could  stay  the  tide  of 
evil  with  good. 

In  speaking  of  the  evil  influence  of  English- 
speaking  people  we  are  reminded  of  an  Englishman 
we  met  in  Santa  Cruz,  Honduras.  He  had  spent 
some  months  in  the  interior  opening  a  large  gold 
mine,  and  was  evidently  a  wealthy  man.  He  and  his 
companions,  accompanied  by  his  daughter,  spent  the 
night  in  the  place  mentioned.  Here  he  was  a  rep- 
resentative of  one  of  the  great  Christian  nations  of 
the  earth,  but  such  profane  language  we  scarcely 
ever  heard.  It  seemed  he  would  say  things  in  order 
to  take  God's  name  in  vain.  These  are  some  of  the 
things  that  make  missionary  work  hard  in  foreign 
fields. 


122  ON  MULEBACK 


CHAPTEE  XXXII. 

PANAMA  TODAY. 

Panama  city  is  the  capital  of  the  new  Republic 
of  Panama.  The  reader  is  well  aware  of  the  fact 
that  in  truth  the  Eepublic  of  Panama  is  the  Isth- 
mus of  Panama.  The  two  largest  cities  on  this  Ee- 
public are  Colon  on  the  Atlantic  Coast,  right  at  the 
Atlantic  entrance  to  the  Panama  Canal,  and  Pana- 
ma City  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  very  near  the  Pacific 
entrance  to  the  Panama  Canal.  The  one  city  of 
Panama  is  only  a  few  miles  from  the  ruins  of  old 
Panama,  the  first  city  built  on  American  soil.  It 
lies  in  ruins  now  to  be  visited  by  the  tourists. 

Panama,  like  the  rest  of  Central  America,  and  in 
fact  all  of  Latin  America,  is  Eoman  in  religion,  but 
it  is  also  like  the  rest  of  Central  America  in  the  fact 
that  the  glory  of  Eome  has  passed  and  the  people 
are  ready  for  light  and  anxious  for  help. 

In  the  days  of  Bishop  William  Taylor,  the  great 
untiring  missionary  who  no  doubt  did  more  than 
any  man  of  his  day  for  the  cause  of  missions,  Pan- 
ama was  a  death  trap.  Bishop  Taylor  started  work 
on  the  Isthmus,  but  on  account  of  sickness  and 
death,  the  missionaries  sent  were  never  able  to  ac- 
complieh  much.  The  question  of  health  is  no  lon- 
ger a  hindrance  to  missionary  work  in  this  district. 
The  United  States,  before  breaking  dirt  for  Pana- 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.     123 

ma  Canal  proceeded  immediately  to  dig  a  grave  for 
the  awful  scourges  of  death  that  had  constantly 
swept  the  country  for  thousands  of  years,  and  today 
it  can  almost  be  spoken  of  as  a  health  resort.  But 
with  all  these  more  favorable  circumstances  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  has  not  awakened  to  the  fact 
that  'Panama  still  lies  in  darkness. 

In  the  entire  city  of  Panama,  to  our  personal 
knowledge,  there  is  only  one  place  where  the  gospel 
is  preached  to  the  Panamanian.  True  there  are 
churches  and  missions,  especially  on  the  American 
side  where  the  gospel  is  preached  to  the  West  In- 
dian in  English,  but  in  Spanish  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  have  the  only  place  of  worship.  It 
was  our  privilege  to  preach  the  gospel  in  this  church 
for  two  weeks,  during  which  time  we  saw  a  few 
score  of  these  poor  people  bow  at  an  altar  of  prayer, 
seeking  God. 

We  were  told  that  in  the  city  of  Colon,  on  the 
Atlantic  side,  there  is  no  work  being  conducted  for 
Spanish  people,  and  so  far  as  we  were  able  to  learn 
the  only  work  among  the  Spanish  people  being  con- 
ducted anywhere  in  the  Republic  of  Panama  is  by 
Brother  E.  L.  Latham,  which  is  not  coimected  with 
any  organization. 

Other  nations  do  not  owe  to  the  Panamanian 
wTiat  America  owes  him.  True  we  have  gone  down 
there  with  money,  we  brought  work  to  their  door,  we 
have  turned  the  attention  ■  of  the  world  toward 
them,  but  in  doing  this  we  sent  them,  in  many  in- 


1^4  ON  MULEBAOK 

stances,  the  worst  representatives  of  morals  we  had. 
We  have  already  spoken  of  the  American's  influence 
in  this  land.  It  is  not  good;  to  say  it  is  bad  is  to 
speak  mildly.  The  writer  could  scarcely  believe 
that  after  America  had  practically  controlled  the 
entire  Isthmui^  for  eight  years,  there  was  only  one 
mission  being  conducted  for  Spanish  people.  Sure- 
ly something  should  be  done. 


THROUGH  CENTEAL  AMERICA.    125 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

PANAMA  TO-MOBEOW, 

The  Canal  Zone  is  a  strip  of  land  ten  miles  wide, 
ex-tending  from  the  city  of  Colon  on  the  Atlantic 
ocean  to  the  city  of  Panama  on  the  Pacific  ocean. 
This  was  purchased  by  the  government  of  the 
United  States  from  the  Republic  of  Panama.  The 
cities  of  Colon  and  Panama,  being  the  largest  in 
the  Republic  fell  within  the  limits  of  the  ten  mile 
strip  of  territory,  but  since  they  were  the  largest 
cities  of  the  Republic,  arrangements  were  made  be- 
tween the  two  governments  whereby  Colon  and 
Panama  are  cut  out  of  the  Zone,  but  with  the  un- 
derstanding that  any  time  the  Panamanian  police 
failed  to  properly  patrol  either  of  the  cities,  our 
officers  are  to  step  in  and  preserve  order,  and  also 
that  we  are  to  look  after  the  sanitation  of  the  two 
cities. 

Through  the  middle  of  this  Zone  the  American 
government  is  now  completing  the  Panama  Canal, 
said  to  be  the  greatest  piece  of  engineering  work 
ever  accomplished  by  man.  The  Culebra  Cut  alone 
is  nothing  short  of  a  miracle.  As  the  writer  s^  in 
Col.  Goethal's  private  office  and  listened  to  him,  as 
the  head  or  real  builder  of  the  Canal,  tell  of  their 
difficulties  and  how  they  coped  with  them,  we  felt 
that  truly  man  had  been  created  in  the  image  of 


12G  ON  MtJiLEBACK 

God.  The  reader  can  scarcely  gather  the  slightest 
idea  of  the  magnitude  of  this  work. 

While  cutting  through  the  mountain  at  the  high- 
est point  of  the  continent  divide,  the  weight  became 
so  heavy  on  either  side  of  the  canal  that  the  pres- 
sure of  the  mountain  caused  the  stone  bed  of  the 
canal  to  bulge  up  in  the  center.  Then  they  found 
it  necessary  to  go  higher  up  and  literally  cut  off 
mountain  peaks,  and  haul  them  away  to  lighten 
the  load. 

The  Canal  not  being  built  on  sea  level,  it  was  nec- 
essary to  put  in  locks  to,  lift  the  vessels  up  from 
one  ocean  and  other  locks  to  let  them  down  into 
the  other.  A  vessel  going  from  the  Atlantic  through 
to  the  Pacific  must  be  lifted  85  feet  above  the  At- 
lantic and  lowered  85  feet  into  the  Pacific.  To  do 
this  the  greatest  locks  on  earth  had  to  be  built. 
They  are  not  only  the  largest,  but  the  most  modem 
ever  built  by  man.  The  great  steel  gates  from  70 
to  85  feet  high  and  about  sixty  feet  wide  will  swing 
open  and  shut  like  the  door  of  a  bird  cage,  just  by 
pressing  a  button.  All  the  machinery  is  operated 
by  electricity. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Cole,  the  chief  en- 
gineer of  the  Pacific  division,  we  had  the  privilege 
of  examining  the  locks  and  going  through  much  of 
the  Canal  in  his  motor  car,  run  on  the  tracks  of  the 
work  trains,  while  he  himself  explained  the  work, 
especially  the  locks. 

All  this  means  that  to  a  very  great  extent  the  cen- 


THROUGH  CENTEAL  AMERICA.     127 

ter  of  ttie  earth  is  shifting  toward  the  Canal  Zone. 
It  will  only  be  a  few  years  until  the  entire  world 
can  be  reached  from  the  Panama  Canal.  Ships 
from  every  nation  will  be  pushing  through  this  pub- 
lic highway.  In  the  author's  opinion  five  years 
from  this  time  there  will  not  be  a  spot  on  the  earth 
not  even  New  York  or  London  where  an  influence 
so  wide  can  be  wielded  as  in  this  place.  Ten  or 
fifteen  thousand  soldiers  are  to  be  stationed  there; 
a  few  thousand  Americans. must  be  there  to  operate 
the  Canal,  business  is  already  shifting  in  that  direc- 
tion, and  the  influence  exerted  will  be  credited  to 
the  United  States.  If  it  is  bad  the  world  will  say; 
"Tliat  is  what  America  does."  For  the  sake  of  the 
world  that  will  pass  through  Panama  Canal,  we 
ought  to  give  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  Pana- 
manian and  the  American  who  labors  there. 

Col.  Gorgas,  who  shipped  disease  out  and  import- 
ed health  into  the  Canal  Zone,  told  the  writer  as  we 
sat  in  his  home,  that  there  was  no  reason  why  the 
future  Panama  should  not  be  a  healthy  country. 
The  President  of  the  Republic  of  Panama  talked 
to  us  of  plans  already  on  foot  to  open  up  the  entire 
Republic  highways,  railroads  and  electric  cars,  the 
latter  already  being  built. 

'Before  commerce  carries  the  worst  from  Protes- 
tant lands  into  these  countries,  will  it  not  be  possi- 
ble for  the  missionary  to  carry  them  the  truth  ?  Go 
ye  into  the  Republic  of  Panama  and  the  Canal  Zone 
and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature. 


128  ON  MULEBAOK 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 
INCIDENTS. 

THE  FIRST  CONVERT. 

About  one  year  before  our  party  reached  Guate- 
mala, C.  A.,  a  Spanish  business  man  received  a  tract 
entitled  "Jetius  is  Coming."  Through  reading  this 
tract  'he  became  interested  in  the  gospel  and  the 
Bible  plan  of  salvation.  Up  to  this  time,  while  he 
was  an  educated  man  holding  a  prominent  position, 
he  had  never  known  anything  whatever  about  the 
Word  of  God  and  the  way  of  Life. 

With  this  interest  awakened  he  invested  five  cents 
in  a  copy  of  God's  Word  furnished  by  the  American 
Bible  Society,  and  began  reading.  His  interest 
was  so  intense  that  he  opened  his  home  for  what  he 
called  religious  services,  inviting  his  friends  and  in- 
sisting on  their  coming  to  hear  him  read  this  book 
which  he  had  been  taught  was  a  bad  book,  and  to 
read  it  meant  to  be  damned.  When  his  interest  in 
the  Bible  and  his  departure  from  the  Roman  faith 
was  found  out  persecution  began.  He  was  persecu- 
ted in  a  general  way  very  much,  but  the  severest 
testings  came  through  his  own  family.  Employees 
of  the  United  Fruit  Company,  many  of  them  Amer- 
icans, cursed  him  because  he  refused  to  drink  with 
them. 

During  the  first  meeting  we  held  in  the  Republic 
this  man  heard  with  delight  the  gospel  message  and 
stepped  out  boldly  for  his  Christ.    He  had  worship- 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  A^IERICA.     129 

ed  the  cross  and  images  all  his  life,  but  now  he 
found  the  Christ  of  the  cross.  He  owned  a  saloon, 
but  proceeded  at  once  to  dispose  of  his  businests 
without  being  spoken  to  about  it  at  all.  In  less  than 
a  month  he  sold  the  building  also,  and  left  the  place 
altogether. 

When  we  saw  him  after  a  few  weeks  take  the 
vows  of  the  church  and  receive  Christian  baptism 
we  could  not  but  proclaim  "It  pays." 

This  incident  gives  the  reader  some  idea  of  the 
work  of  a  tract  purchased,  sent  and  handed  out  in 
the  name  of  Him  who  said  "Sow  by  all  waters."  It 
gives  those  who  have  never  been  on  the  field  an  idea 
of  the  power  of  the  printed  Word. 

On  account  of  the  action  of  the  government  in 
this  country  giving  statutory  religious  liberty  and 
driving  out  the  Jesuit  order  of  priests,  it  is  easy  to 
get  the  people  to  read  the  Word  of  God,  and  tracts 
written  on  the  same. 

When  we  took  this  man  by  the  hand  after  he  had 
been  baptized  he  told  us  the  business  he  expected  lo 
enter,  but  said,  "I  am  going  to  spend  my  life  in 
God's  service."  This  tract  was  a  good  investment ; 
the  Bible  did  good  work;  the  worth  of  that  meeting 
in  which  he  accepted  Christ  can  never  be  estimated ; 
for  without  a  doubt  he  will  be  preaching  the  gospel 
in  a  few  months.  In  fact,  he  has  already  been  doing 
so.  "'Cast  thy  bread  upon  the  waters,  for  thou  shalt 
find  it  after  many  days."  "Blessed  are  ye  that  sow 
beside  all  waters." 


130  ON  MULEBACK 

MR.  TAYLOR^  WHY  DIDN't   YOU   COME  HERE  TWO 
YEAES  AGO? 

The  caiition  of  this  article  was  the  question  of  a 
prominent  Central  American  young  woman.  She 
spoke  in  the  peace  of  her  new  found  joy  soon  after 
giving  her  heart  to  Christ.  She  is  the  daughter  of 
a  prominent  merchant  and  can  speak  five  languages. 
The  Truth  had  reached  her  heart  and  the  gave  every 
evidence  of  being  genuinely  saved. 

While  sitting  at  the  table  one  evening  after  the 
night  service  she  turned  to  the  writer  with  this  ques- 
tion: "^'Mr.  Taylor,  why  didn't  you  come  here  two 
years  ago?"  On  inquiring  why  she  asked  such  a 
question  she  told  us  that  for  two  years  her  bleeding, 
hungry  heart,  crushed  by  disappointment,  had  been 
crying  for  help  and  deliverance.  'Oh,'"'  she  said,  "I 
have  been  wanting  this  very  thing  for  more  than  two 
years  and  have  believed  all  the  time  there  was  just 
such  help  for  me." 

When  we  endeavored  to  get  her  to  praise  the  Lord 
for  saving  her  now  her  reply  was,  "That  is  all  right, 
Mr.  Taylor ;  I  do  thank  God  for  saving  me  now,  but, 
oh  how  my  poor  heart  has  bled  and  ached  during 
the  last  two  years,  and,  oh  my  God !  think  of  what 
I  would  have  been  kept  from  if  this  had  taken  place 
then."  She  wrung  her  hands  and  with  the  most 
rending  cries  said  again,  "Oh,  if  I  had  only  heard 
about  Him  two  years  ago." 

We  cannot  expect  her  words  to  impress  the  reader 
when  they  are  seen  in    print  as  they    impressed  us 


THEOUGH    CENTEAL   AMEEICA     131 

when  we  heard  them,saw  her  face  and  wept  with  her. 
This  is  one  of  many  incidents  where  we  have  found 
hungr}--hearted  people  in  the  foreign  field,  crying 
and  "feeling  after  God  if  haply  they  may  find  Him." 
It  will  be  good  to  give  them  the  gospel  two  years 
from  now,  but  oh,  the  sorrow,  shame,  disappoint- 
ment, heartaches  and  even  hell  itself  we  could  save 
them  from  by  making  haste  to  give  them  the  gospel 
now.  ^lake  no  tarrying,  go  quickly,  send  quickly, 
for  there  are  heavy-hearted  people  in  the  foreign 
field  who  are  hunting  for  God,  and  should  not  be 
put  off  two  years  more. 

The  young  lady  referred  to  has  not  only  been 
saved  herself  but  is  now  working  to  help  others,  and 
is  planning  to  go  to  school  in  the  United  States  to 
prepare  herself  for  the  work.  American  missionaries 
and  American  money  are  not  so  much  needed  to 
give  the  gospel  to  the  heathen,  as  to  search  out  the 
few  who  will  themselves  become  workers.  We  need 
in  the  foreign  field  evangelists  to  hold  meetings  and 
find  those  whose  hearts  are  hungry,  who  in  turn  will 
become  workers  and  reach  the  greater  masses. 

'In  coal  mine  disasters  we  have  known  men  to 
work  for  days,  one  shift  after  another  removing  dirt 
day  and  night  for  a  week  or  ten  days,  because  they 
believed  there  were  possibly  some  men  under  there 
who  wanted  to  be  rescued.  We  count  it  a  manly 
spirit  and  it  is  commended.  But  the  lack  of  it  is 
called  cowardly  and  selfish,  and  the  man  refusing  to 
help  is  branded  as  a  traitor  to  his  fellows.     In  the 


132  ON  MULEBACK 

case  we  have  given  of  the  young  lady,  we  have  an  il- 
lustration of  thousands  who  are  helplessly  crying 
for  deliverance,  but  because  their  cries  do  not  reach 
our  ears  we  neglect  them.  Please  do  not  tarry  lon- 
ger. You  are  no  traitor  to  the  human  family,  but 
a  lover  of  your  fellow  creatures  for  whom  Jesus 
Christ  died,  are  you  not? 

Why  didn't  you  come  two  years  ago? 

THE  MAN  FROM  HONDURAS. 

His  smile  and  cheerful  face  had  attracted  us  to 
him  before  we  learned  who  he  was  and  where  he  was 
from.  He  is  a  poor,  bare-footed  man  but  his  eager- 
ness for  the  gospel  is  really  pathetic.  This  year  he 
attended  the  camp  meeting  at  Chiquimula  alone. 
His  tramp  covered  about  120  miles  and  most  of  it 
through  the  rain  and  deep  mud.  Last  year  ho 
brought  his  wife  and  old  mother  with  him,  and 
carried  his  two  children  strapped  to  his  back. 

This  brother  is  not  at  all  an  exception  to  the  rule, 
for  when  once  converted  they  think  nothing  of  such 
a  tramp  if  they  can  get  new  'light  on  the  gospel, 
or  lead  some  one  to  accept  Jesus  Christ. 

It  should  be  understood  that  many  of  these  dear 
souls  have  no  preaching  at  all  in  their  own  town  or 
communityj  but  must  take  long  Journeys  to  hear  it. 
Each  one  on  his  return  appoints  himself  pastor  aiicf 
proceeds  to  build  up  a  work  at  his  own  place.  This 
is  why  journeys  through  new  territory,  holding  one 
service  in  a  place,  pays  so  well.  When  they  get 
the  light,  and  some  one  accepts  the  gospel  he  turns 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.     133 

preacher  at  once,  and  the  missionaiy  is  likely  to  re- 
turn in  a  few  weeks  and  find  services  being  con- 
ducted by  one  who  heard  and  believed  when  he  was 
there  on  his  last  visit. 

In  these  countries  we  see  the  truth  of  the  Scrip- 
ture "My  word  shall  not  return  unto  me  void."  We 
know  many  cases  where  only  one  message  was  heard, 
and  others  where  they  only  read  one  gospel,  or  the 
testament,  and  God  rea<3hed  their  heart. 

THE  ONLY  BELIEVERS. 

While  in  a  Central  American  town  we  were  asked 
to  visit  a  family  who  were  "damned"  because  they 
had  left  off  confessions  and  w^ere  now  believing  in 
the  Protestant  religion. 

When  we  reached  the  place  we  found  the  father 
and  mother  had  died  and  the  home  consisted  of 
three  daughters,  possibly  23  to  45  years  of  age.  On 
arriving  at  the  hoU(?e  we  were  heartily  welcomed 
and  they  informed  us  that  they  were  the  only  fami- 
ly of  ^T)elievers"  in  town.  The  older  one  of  the 
family,  who  seemed  to  be  the  head  of  the  house,  as- 
sured us  that  the  house  and  sixteen  acres  of  land 
right  in  the  town,  were  all  free  to  the  missionaries, 
for  they  proposed  to  walk  with  God  as  He  gave  them 
light. 

The  first  thing  that  attracted  our  attention  was 
that  the  only  entrance  to  the  house  was  to  the  front 
room,  which  was  a  bar-room.  On  the  shelves  right 
by  the  liquor  w^as  a  Spanish  Bible;  pasted  on  the 
shelves  and  doors  were  tracts  we  had  sent  a  native 


134  0^^  MULEBACK 

worker,  and  on  another  shelf  witli  the  rum  were 
tracts  they  were  giving  out. 

After  recovering  somewhat  from  shock  number 
one,  they  began  bringing  in  the  children,  and  we 
found  that  two  of  the  women  had  one  child  each, 
while  the  other  sister  was  the  mother  of  three; 
but  on  looking  for  the  husbands  we  could  find  none. 

A  rather  embarrassing  home  for  Christianity  in  a 
new  town  ?  Yes,  but  a  home  where  it  can  be  put  to 
its  best.  True,  they  were  selling  rum,  but  why  not  ? 
The  priest  and  others  had  always  drank.  What  did 
they  know  of  its  real  wrong  ?  On  questioning  them 
we  found  that  in  September  1912,  Bro.  Tito,  a  na- 
tive preacher,  passed  by  and  banded  these  women 
some  tracts.  They  inquired  if  they  were  Protestant 
tracts  and  began  talking  with  him  about  religion. 
He  finally  went  back  to  their  house  and  explained 
to  them  salvation  hy  faith.  They  began  to  manifest 
an  eager  desire  to  learn,  and  later  on  he  visited  the 
place  with  a  little  stereopticon,  an  "oil  lamp,"  and 
some  Bible  views  which  he  exhibited  on  their 
porch.  They  told  the  writer  they  had  never  yet 
heard  a  real  sermon  or  attended  a  meeting,  but 
wanted  to  attend  the  camp  which  we  were  to  hold, 
perhaps  75  miles  from  their  home. 

We  asked  if  they  were  Protestants  and  they  re- 
plied, "Yes,  out  and  out,  and  the  priest  says  we  are 
damned  because  we  do  not  go  to  confess,  and  we  be- 
lieve with  the  Protestants." 


THROUGH  CENTEAL  AMERICA.     135 

OPEN"  AIR  WORK. 

The  Constitution  of  Guatemala  prohibits  meet- 
ings on  the  street,  yet  we  must  reach  the  peopie. 
There  are  no  churches  in  this  part  of  the  Republic. 
An  American  gentleman  in  charge  of  a  large  pier 
which  is  being  built,  kindly  gave  ue  the  use  of  the 
"construction  shed"  for  the  night  services. 

Desiring  to  reach  the  people  in  day  time  we  took 
our  drums  and  other  instruments  on  our  porch, 
which  is  right  on  the  ailey,  and  it  was  only  a  few 
moments  until  we  had  the  alley  packed  with  an  ea- 
ger throng.  We  shouted,  sang  and  told  them  of  Je- 
sus, and  sold  Testaments  and  Gospels. 

Of  course,  an  officer  soon  arrived  and  took  two 
of  our  party  before  the  Chief,  but  while  waiting  at 
headquarters  they  sold  some  Testaments  and  wit- 
nessed for  Jesus.  Our  plea  was  that  while  the  peo- 
ple were  indeed  in  the  alley  we  were  in  our  own 
hired  house  and  should  not  be  molested.  The  Lord 
gave  us  favor  with  the  "powers  that  be,"  and  tho 
Chief  let  us  go  on  with  the  work. 


136  ON  MULEBACK 


CHAPTEE  XXXV. 

SIMEON. 

He  is  an  Indian  from  Guatemaila;  yes,  a  "pure 
blooded,"  bare-footed,  black-headed,  straight-haired 
Indian.  But  I  must  not  neg'lect  to  say  a  Christian 
Indian,  and  a  well  saved  one.  We  were  attracted  to 
him  by  his  humble  spirit  and  backward  disposition. 
Simeon  is  a  man  of  few  worde,  but  always  pleasant 
and  ready  to  "take  hold." 

We  met  him  in  Coban,  Guatemala.  He  impressed 
us  as  being  a  humble  Christian,  one  who  was  worthy 
the  confidence  of  the  people.  He  is  used  of  the 
Lord  when  he  puts  a  strap  of  leather  around  his 
head,  swings  a  hundred  pounds  of  books  on  his  back, 
goes  on  a  trip  through  the  mountains,  selling  God's 
word  and  exhorting  the  people. 

But  Simeon  is  profitable  in  more  than  one  way. 
He  has  learned  to  set  type  and  nm  the  press,  so 
that  when  tracts  and  papers  are  being  printed  for 
free  distribution  he  is  really  at  his  best. 

His  dwelling  is  a  humble  place.  A  large  shed 
covered  with  trash  stands  in  the  yard  near  the  print- 
ing office,  and  in  the  ^garret"  of  this  shed  he  has 
fixed  up  a  room  out  of  old  sacks  and  pieces  of  box. 
A  little  ladder  carried  him  up  to  his  "nest."  He 
does  his  cooking  in  a  little  place  about  six  feet 
square  in  the  yard.     This  is  also  put  up  of  boards, 


THEOUGH    CENTRAL  AMERICA.     137 

box  lids,  poles,  etc.  Talking  with  the  writer  he 
said,  "I  think  Christians  should  have  what  they 
need,  but  I  don't  need  shoes,"  so  he  goes  barefooted. 

From  his  field  of  labor  to  the  Chiquimula  camp 
meeting  it  is  about  175  miles,  and  only  30  miles 
can  be  covered  by  train.  Simeon  wanted  to  go  to 
the  meeting,  so  with  a  pack  on  his  back  he  set  out 
on  foot.  We  took  him  with  us  on  the  train  the  39 
miles  but  the  remainder  of  the  way  he  tramped. 
Some  35  or  40  miles  he  had  to  wade  mud  ofttimes 
knee-deep  but  with  no  word  of  complaint.  His  hap- 
py Indian  face  and  quiet  spirit  have  often  been  an 
inspiration  to  the  writer. 

Simeon's  work  of  turning  out  tracts  which  are 
being  mailed  free  ail  over  Central  America  to  those 
who  will  distribute  them  can  only  be  estimated  on 
tliat  day. 


138  OX  MULEBACK 

CHAPTER  XXXYI. 

SERIACO   AND   ANTONIO. 

The  journey  was  to  be  a  long,  hard  one  with  many 
mountains  to  climb.  We  had  good  mules  and  had 
planned  for  nearly  50  miles  each  day.  The  only  point 
we  had  not  decided  was  how  to  take  the  stereopti- 
con.  We  would  only  spend  one  night  in  each  place 
and  would  rarely  ever  get  in  before  six  p.  m.  To 
get  good  crowds  we  must  have  the  "vistas."  Hence, 
we  must  have  a  "moso" — Indian  servant,  who  car- 
ries a  load  on  his  back  by  running  a  rope  around  it 
and  fastening  the  rope  to  a  strap  of  'leather  around 
his  head.  He  must  be  a  good  one,  and  a  strong  one 
for  this  trip. 

'Seriaco,  a  stoutly-built  Indian  twenty-three  years 
old,  attended  the  Chiquimula  meeting  and  had  a 
face  that  looked  like  a  "^full  moon";  he  was  always 
smiling.  We  decided  he  was  the  man,  if  God  would 
give  him  to  us  .  When  we  asked  him  to  go  he  said 
he  would  gladly  do  so  if  his  corn  was  gathered. 
This  problem  was  soon  solved,  however,  by  his  In- 
dian neighbors,  who  were  also  saved,  coming  to  him 
and  saying  they  would  gather  his  corn.  No  man 
ever  preached  the  gospel  on  a  salary  of  $3,000.00  a 
year  who  did  it  with  greater  joy  than  Seriaco  plod- 
ded on  under  the  hot  sun,  climbing  mountains  with 
a  heavy  load.  We  have  seen  him  lean  over  with  his 
pack  on  his  back,  pull  a  big  thorn  out  of  his  bare 


THEOUGH   CEXTEAL  AMERICA.     139 

foot,  and  with  the  blood  flowing  he  would  praise  God 
and  press  on.  His  bed  was  the  stone  or  dirt  floor  of 
a  back  porch  every  night.  He  arose  in  the  morn- 
ings between  two  and  four  o'clock. 

Antonio  had  gone  about  twenty  miles  on  the  trip 
with  his  wife  and  child  to  attend  the  first  night  ser- 
vice. While  we  were  eating  supper  he  heard  us  say 
we  were  going  to  Ocotopeca,  Honduras,  while  on 
this  journey.  "Oh,  glory-  to  God,"  he  cried  in  Span- 
ish ;  "I  am  going  with  you,  for  when  I  left  there  I 
told  them  I  would  come  back  and  bring  some  evan- 
gelists with  me."  He  hurried  to  hie  wife  and  told 
her  he  was  going,  and  she  helped  him  shout  over  it, 
and  urged  him  to  go.  True,  he  was  starting  for  a 
tramp  of  a  few  hundred  miles,  but  what  of  that? 
He  was  going  to  witness  for  Jesus. 

The  next  morning  about  three  o'clock  Antonio 
had  taken  the  bimdles  off  our  saddles  so  we  could 
lighten  the  mules  for  a  heavy  day's  journey  over  a 
mountain  so  high  that  the  clouds  hang  around  its 
peak  al'l  the  while,  and  the  misty  rain  is  so  thick 
one  can  only  see  a  short  distance.  The  rule  was, 
Seriaco  and  Antonio  were  right  along  with  us.  We 
never  had  to  wait  for  our  baggage.  We  generally 
had  music  or  shouting,  for  they  were  never  too  tired 
to  shout  and  sing.  At  times  we  would  get  down 
under  a  tree  on  the  mountain  side  and  pray. 

Before  we  were  ready  to  open  a  meeting  at  night 
thev  would  begin  the  sinking.  When  we  closed  thev 
would  begin  again,  and  they  held  the  people,  too. 
It  was  not  uncommon  for  them  to  get  ahead  of  us 


140  ON  MULEBACK 

in  the  journey,  and  a  little  later  we  would  pass 
them  in  the  road  with  a  few  natives  gathered  about, 
preaching  the  gospel  to  them.  At  one  time  we 
passed  a  few  dozen  pilgrims  who  had  been  off  to 
worship  a  famous  idol;  there  were  our  boys,  stand- 
ing in  the  rain,  preaching  with  great  earnestness. 
As  we  rode  out  of  sight  we  looked  back,  and  with 
their  hats  off  in  the  rain,  they  were  still  telling  the 
story  of  Jesus. 

At  the  close  of  a  service  one  night,  the  professor 
of  the  school  in  that  town  came  with  a  crowd  to  a 
store  where  our  Indians  were,  and  boasted  that  he 
and  his  friends  would  prove  there  was  no  hell  and 
no  Bible.  Others  told  us  of  the  incident  for  Se- 
riaco  and  Antonio  never  referred  to  it.  The 
professor  and  his  crowd  began  with  their, 
questions,  and  our  Indians  in  their  simple  way 
began  to  answer,  to  testify  and  shout;  the  professor 
cou'ld  only  -stand  the  fire  a  little  while  until  he  and 
his  crowd  beat  a  retreat. 

When  the  journey  was  over  and  the  Indians  were 
to  leave  the  writer  before  day  the  next  morning,  we 
asked  what  we  should  pay  them,  they  both  cried, 
"Nothing;  we  did  it  for  our  heavenly  Father  and 
do  not  want  any  pay."  When  we  insisted  on  giv- 
ing them  something  for  a  present  they  put  up  their 
hands  and  thanked  Ood  for  it,  then  bowed  their 
heads  and  prayed. 

More  than  one  million  such  Indians  in  Guate- 
mala alone  are  without  the  gospel,  and  worshipping 
they  know  not  what.     Is  there  no  one  that  cares  ? 


THEOUGH  CEXTEAL  AMERICA.     141 


CHAPTEE  XXXVII. 


''don  JUAX.''' 


We  never  learned  the  rest  of  his  name,  for  every- 
body calls  him  '"'Don  Juan,"  (pronounced  Don 
Whan).  We  met  him  in  the  early  morning,  but  it 
vrill  be  late  in  the  evening  of  life  before  we  can  for- 
get him.  And  we  are  certain  we  will  meet  him 
early  '"'in  the  morning  over  there." 

Having  a  long  trip  for  the  day  before  us,  we  de- 
cided to  ride  twelve  miles  before  breakfast  and  stop 
at  Tablon,  a  little  village  on  the  frontier  of  Sal- 
vador, for  breakfast.  Our  Indian  boys,  Antonio 
and  Seriaco,  went  on  ahead  to  ask  a  place  for  us 
to  stay,  and  made  the  arrangements  for  us  at  Don 
Juan's  home.  As  we  rode  through  the  little  vil- 
lage several  people  called  to  us  and  said  they  were 
coming  up  to  Don  Juan's  so  we  could  preach  to 
them  after  breakfast. 

Upon  our  arrival  we  were  met  by  a  quaint  little 
old  Indian  who  had  a  mellowness  about  his  face 
not  common  to  that  race.  His  greetings  were  hearty 
embraces  and  a  "Gloria  a'  Dios."  We  rested  our- 
selves under  some  trees  and  the  people  were  soon 
coming  by  the  dozen.  Breakfast  was  ready  and  we 
enjoyed  our  proverbial  "tortellas  and  frijoles" — un- 
leavened corn  cakes  and  black  beans. 

The  crowd  was  near  at  hand  all  the  while,  for 


142  ON  MULEBACK 

where  we  went  these  Indians  followed.  With  Bible 
in  hand  we  proceeded  to  open  the  service,  when  old 
Don  Juan  said,  "Come  over  to  the  chapel."  We 
followed  him  to  the  other  side  of  his  little  hut  and 
ilo,  he  led  us  and  the  crowd  into  a  12  ft.  shed  room 
the  full  length  of  his  humble  home.  Of  course,  the 
seats  were  rather  crude,  and  the  floor  was  dirt,  but 
surely  God  met  His  people  in  that  place.  This  old 
man  had  prepared  for  himself  a  chapel,  a  temple  of 
his  own. 

"How  often  do  you  have  services  here,  Don 
Juan  ?"  In  a  tone  and  manner  so  modest  you  had 
to  look  twice  to  see  the  man  who  spoke,  he  replied, 
"On  Sundays,  Mondays,  Tuesdays  and  Fridays." 
"And  when  was  there  a  missionary  here,"  we  asked. 
"jSTot  since  last  June,"  was  the  repl}^ — nine  months 
ago. 

Our  host  said  that  things  were  cold  and  much  help 
was  needed,  but  he  was  the  only  one  who  thought 
so,  for  al  the  neighbors  had  something  to  say  about 
the  work  this  man  of  God  was  doing. 

Being  interested  in  the  man  and  the  work  of  the 
Lord  in  Tablon  we  decided  to  find  what  missionary 
had  been  honored  of  the  Lord  in  establishing  the 
work,  so  we  asked  him  under  whose  preaching  he 
first  heard  the  gospel.  To  our  utter  surprise  he  told 
us  that  he  was  down  in  Metapan,  a  small  Salvador 
city,  and  met  a  man  selling  Bibles.  The  man  told 
Don  Juan  the  books  he  was  selling  were  the  Word 
of   God,   so  he  bought  a   Testament  and  read  it 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.     143 

through,  learning  about  Salvation  by  Faith.  About 
that  time  a  woman  came  through  his  town 
with  some  tracts,  and  her  tracts  gave  him  more 
light  on  the  gospel,  so  that  he  accepted  Jesus  and 
began  work.  The  first  man  he  won  was  his  brother, 
and  from  that  time  the  fire  began  to  spread  until 
at  the  time  of  our  visit  they  had  thirty-five  believert; 
and  many  others  ready  to  accept,  he  toid  us. 

After  our  mules  were  saddled  and  we  were  about 
ready  to  mount,  these  men  and  women  gathered 
around  us  and  there  on  their  knees  as  they  looked 
up  in  our  faces,  they  plead  with  us  to  remain  for 
at  least  one  more  service.  We  found  a  tus^orino-  at 
our  heart.  Finally  they  informed  us  that  the  Bible 
spoke  of  Jesus  passing  along,  going  on  to  another 
place,  but  the  people  begged  him  to  remain,  and  he 
did  it.  "You  may  not  see  it,  but  that  scripture  is 
very  clear  to  us  and  shows  us  you  ought  to  remain,'- 
they  said. 

After  we  slipped  behind  one  of  the  huts  for  a 
season  of  prayer  we  fe^lt  clear  to  press  on  althougli 
they  insisted  they  would  pay  for  a  telegram  to  the 
next  place  ahead,  and  one  of  the  brethren  spoke  up 
and  said  he  would  carry  the  telegram  to  the  nearest 
office,  which  was  twelve  miles. 

The  memory  of  those  shining  Indian  faces  turned 
up  to  our  own,  begging  for  "only  one  more  service," 
can  never  be  effaced.  They  watched  us  off,  waved 
at  us  as  we  rode  awav,  and  turned  with  lon^in^ 
hearts  back  to  their  homes.     We  feel  sure  that  our 


/ 


144  0^  MULEBACK. 

'  reader  will  join  us  in  prayer  that  the  Lord  will  send 
some  one  to  Don  Juan  to  serve  as  pastor  and  help 
encourage  the  little  congregations  around  in  other 
vil'lages. 

We  found  they  were  at  work  on  a  little  church, 
and  being  so  interested  in  their  work  w^e  asked  if 
they  would  be  able  to  finish  it  with  their  own  hande, 
or  would  they  like  to  have  some  help.  We  had  told 
Bro.  Edwards  we  would  be  glad  to  put  a  few  dol- 
lars into  the  work.  Don  Juan's  reply  was  that  they 
only  needed  the  help  of  God,  that  they  could  do 
all  the  work  alone ;  they  needed  the  Bread  of  Life. 


THROUGH   CENTRAL  AMERICA.     145 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

GOOD-BYE. 

After  two  Indians  had  spent  several  days  with  the 
writer,  during  which  time  we  were  together  day  and 
night,  the  time  came  to  say  good-bye. 

Their  loads  were  heavy;  the  sun  was  hot;  and  at 
otlier  times  the  roads  were  made  muddy  and  slip- 
pery by  the  fast  falling  rain.  But  during  the  time 
they  were  with  us  we  never  saw  an  unholy  act,  heard 
no  ■complaint,  nothing  that  led  us  to  believe  they 
•'felt  hurt,"  were  "impatient,"  or  thought  they  were 
being  "slighted  or  imposed  upon." 

We  finished  our  journey  and  reached  the  railroad 
where  they  were  to  turn  back.  They  spent  the  re- 
maining hours  of  the  afternoon,  and  were  to  leave 
long  before  daylight  the  next  morning.  About  nine 
o'clock  that  evening  while  I  was  writing,  one  of  the 
boys  knocked  on  my  door  and  entered.  As  he  be- 
gan talking  I  saw  his  eyes  were  red,  I  understood 
the  words  "tomorrow,"  and  "road,"  so  I  knew  they 
wanted  to  say  good-bye.  I  called  the  other  one  in 
and,  though  I  could  not  talk  with  them  in  their 
tongue,  I  knew  how  to  say,  "let  us  pray."  So  I  got 
them  near  me  and  said  in  their  language,  "let  us 
pray."  We  kneeled  together  for  the  last  time. 
Each  of  the  Indians  prayed  and  then  I  prayed  and 
cried. 


14G  OX  MULEBACK 

We  arose  to  say  good-bye,  and  my  big  Indian  fell 
on  my  neck,  hugged  me  until  it  hurt,  and  began 
weeping  like  a  child.  He  would  step  back  and  then 
break  down  again.  Finailly  the  other  took  his  turn 
and  then  both  at  once.  They  wept  and  I  cried. 
They  would  lay  their  hands  on  their  hearts  and  weep 
most  pitifully. 

I  rummaged  through  my  clothes  and  found  two 
nice  handkerchiefs  with  my  initials  on  them  and 
gave  one  to  each  of  them,  hugged  them  good,  wept 
like  I  was  telling  my  own  boy  good-bye,  and  commit- 
ted them  to  His  keeping. 

They  are  so  affectionate  as  a  people.  But  they 
have  never  been  loved,  except  by  Jesus,  and  He  has 
not  yet  been  able  to  get  any  one  who  would  go  and 
tell  them  He  loves  them. 

"•'Good-bye,  my  Indians;  by  the  help  of  God,  I 
will  send  you  some  one  who  will  bring  with  them 
a  message  of  love." 


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The  Missionary 
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